Dodgy B&Q Taps

[The Medway Handyman]

Fitted a monoblock mixer tap for a customer today - she had bought it from B&Q. The connecting 'tails' - the tapered copper tubes that screw into the tap base & seal with an 'O' ring caused me no end of trouble.

Tried to trim one to length with a Kopex Pipeslice - deformed the tube badly. I though there was something wrong with the pipeslice & tried it on some 15mm copper pipe no problem.

On inspection, the wall thickness of the 'tail' looks about half that of normal copper tube. You could actually deform the tube with sufficient thumb pressure.

Chucked them in the bin & used some spare ones I had on the van.

[Lobster]

As an aside - I had occasion to work on some pretty old 15mm (well, half-inch presumably!) copper tube the other day, and was very surprised to see how much thicker the walls were compared to the modern equivalent. What with the extraordinary price of copper these days, you have to wonder if they'll be making translucent copper tubing before long...

David

[John]

Hardly "no end of trouble" for a Handyman worth his salt then eh??

Cheers

John

[Peter Andrews]

...and from my experience you will be back in six months replacing the failed monobloc.

Peter

[Stuart B]

There was a time when copper pipe was in short supply and I had to use some Dutch imported stuff that you couldn't bend .It was quite a few years ago .

[John Rumm]

Sounds like what would be "Table Y" stuff in today's jargon (from BS EN

1057 I presume). The more common Table X "Half Hard" pipe is thinner wall (about 0.8mm Vs 1.2 IIRC). The thicker softer stuff is also the only one where you can get good results with a bending spring IME.

or plastic even ;-)

[The Medway Handyman]

In as much as I fitted the taps and then had to remove/refit them it was. Having spares on the van is what makes you worth your salt.

Simply posted the message as a warning against buying crap taps frm B&Q.