How can a half inch not equal a half inch?

In article , snipped-for-privacy@ca.rr.com (Daniel Prince) writes: | I bought a toilet seat bidet that uses hot water from the sink | supply plus cold water from the toilet supply to provide warm water | to the bidet. The bidet came with an adapter to connect to the sink | shut off valve. The adapter is 3/8 inch. It is too small to fit my | shut off valve. I looked at the flexible connector that goes from | the shut off valve to the sink faucet. The label says that it is | 1/2 inch on both sides. (Both sides of the connector fit on the | valve.) | | I sent the bidet maker an email asking them to send me a 1/2 inch | adapter. I received an adapter today but it was still too small for | my shut off valve. I thought that they had sent me a 7/16 inch | adapter so I went to Lowes and bought a 1/2 inch adapter but it did | not fit either. | | How can the 1/2 inch connectors on the flexible connector fit the | shut off valve but the 1/2 adapters not fit?

The most obvious explanation is that the connectors on the flexible hose and the valve are 1/2" pipe thread while the adapter is a compression fitting.

| What size of adapter | do I need?

If the above is correct I don't think you will find exactly the adapter you want. You might have to put a 1/2" tee after the sink's supply valve. Then you can adapt one port of the tee to whatever the bidet needs. An alternative might be to adapt the valve to 3/8" compression and replace the sink's flexible hose with a (common) 3/8" compression by 1/2" pipe thread version.

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Sadly, there are several types of fitting that don't fit each other. I would take everything into a store and ask how to get from one to the other. Or possibly you have a neighbor familar with plumbing who could look at it.

I looked at the flexible connector again and it says on the label that it is 1/2 iron pipe (something) and 1/2 threaded (something). (Parts of the label are unreadable because the text is gone where the label bends around the tube.)

BOTH ends of this connector will screw onto the valve.

I can not do that because the shut off valve is soldered on. I think I might have to cut off the valve, solder on a threaded adapter and install a 3/8 inch shut off valve.

Iron pipe is not used for water today, but copper tubing or PEX is. That changes the whole picture. The measurements on pipe are far different than for tubing. Take what you have to the hardware store and either a digital photo or a good description of what exists and they may be of better help to you.

Just take the "flexible connector" which presently supplies your toilet AND the "flexible connector" which came with the bidet to a KNOWLEDGABLE plumbing supply place and tell them what you want to do.

They can cobble up a Tee with appropriate adaptors on all three legs so you can just screw everything together without having to cut and solder.

Or take your chances that you'll find a floor guy at Home Depot or Lowes who can pick the right parts out of their seemingly infinite selection of couplings and adaptors.

Doing it that way might not win any awards for beauty, but it will work.

Jeff

Nothing's too good for gourmand cats.