Compression fittings

[The Medway Handyman]

IIRC the old 1/2" copper pipe is so close to 15mm that new fittings will go onto old pipes, but I'm not sure about the old 3/4" copper.

Will a 22mm compression fit or do I need an adaptor?

[Andrew Mawson]

Dave, you are correct for 15mm, but 22mm -> 3/4" needs an adaptor. mind you iirc 1/2" is a tight squeeze.

AWEM

[A.Lee]

You need an adaptor for soldered, or for compression, get some 22mm-3/4 olives. These can be used in normal 22mm compression fittings, but are fatter at one end to allow 3/4 pipe to be sealed well in the larger 22mm fitting. Only available at decent plumber merchants, 50p each iirc, which seems a lot for an olive, but remarkably cheap compared to a proper 22 to 3/4 compression fitting. Alan.

[The Medway Handyman]

Cheers for the tip Alan, I've got a proper plumbers place nearby.

[Dave Liquorice]

Ideally, as others have mentioned, a 3/4" olive. But you can get away with murdering up a soft copper 22mm olive onto 3/4" pipe, might not be so successful with a hard brass 2mm olive.

[mark]

Go to a real merchant and ask for a "green" olive.Substitute this for the one in your 22mm fitting.Cost pennies. Mark.

[The Medway Handyman]

By a real merchant, do you mean one that stocks tartan paint, sky hooks & long weights?

[Cicero]

========================================= More likely to be one that's closed when you need something in a hurry.

Cic.

[mark]

Ok,smarty,come back with the smart answers when you actually know something about the subject. A green olive is the industry standard way of joining 3/4" copper to

22mm with a 22mm fitting.Has been available since metric pipe first appeared. Is painted green so muppets like your self know what it is.

[John Rumm]

Indeed, you know the place ;-)

That would be a *woosh* then...

[The Medway Handyman]

I'd assumed that you were winding me up. e.g. trying to get me to go to a local plumbing shop & ask for a 'green olive' as in fruit.

The term 'green olive' may well be a regional term relevant to the area you live in. A Google search for 'green olive' gives 1.5 million results, the first 4 pages deal only with restaurants & recipies. No mention of a plumbing application.

I was in my local plumbing merchants today, they supplied 2 suitable olives - which were certainly not painted green at all. They are a goldy colour distinctly different from other olives I have seen. I asked if these were called 'green olives' and they clearly had no idea what I was on about.

It may be the 'industry standard' where you live. They may be called 'green' olives where you live. They may be painted green where you live.

None of which seems to apply in the south east of England. If you enter 'green olives' into the Screwfix search engine you get a page of safety trainers.

If I misunderstood you and incorrectly assumed it was a wind up or a joke, then I appologise.

[Toby]

Care to post some links that show this?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Given this question has come up several times on here during the many many years I've been reading this group, it's the first I've heard of this expression. And since I was around when the conversion happened and bought such things then something painted green would have stuck in the mind. Nor does painting an olive sound like good practice to me - they rely on intimate contact to seal properly.

Perhaps it's a regional thing like 'pattress'.

[Alang]

Just had a look in my plumbing bits in the shed. Two large olives. One has a slightly larger taper on one side and has a slight green tint. These are from 1988 when I redid the kitchen and bathroom in my last house and had to connect old imperial to new metric pipework