Imperial/metric pipes?

Mar 08, 2006 9 Replies

Hi,



Maybe some of the older people on this list can help me with this one. Our house was built in 1970 and Im sure that some of the pipework that I thought was 22mm or 15mm OD isnt. My questions are 1) What is the situation when joining new metric pipe using std brass compression fittings to the old stuff? 2) Also will the new speedfit connectors be ok on these posssible imperial sizes?



Thanks, Matthew



15mm and 1/2" are almost identical. 15mm compression should work with both. 22mm and 3/4" are not very close. You can then use a standard compression fitting but you'll have to replace one of the olives with a special 3/4" one - available in plumbers merchants, prob. not B&Q.

Speedfit is similar. 15mm=1/2" They do a 3/4" to 22mm converter. Having said that, back in my early days on DIY - in fact my very first DIY project - involved joining 3/4" to 22mm. Ill-advised plumbers merchant said it would be OK to use standard Hep2O 22mm pushfit to do the job. It's still there under the floor...and no leaks yet (6 yrs later). But I will be replacing it with a copper end feed converter very soon now just in case!

Regards, Jon.

| |Matthew wrote: |> Hi, |>

|> Maybe some of the older people on this list can help me with this one. |> Our house was built in 1970 and Im sure that some of the pipework that |> I thought was 22mm or 15mm OD isnt. My questions are 1) What is the |> situation when joining new metric pipe using std brass compression |> fittings to the old stuff? 2) Also will the new speedfit connectors be |> ok on these posssible imperial sizes? | |15mm and 1/2" are almost identical. 15mm compression should work with |both. |22mm and 3/4" are not very close. You can then use a standard |compression fitting but you'll have to replace one of the olives with a |special 3/4" one - available in plumbers merchants, prob. not B&Q.

If you are into Yorkshire or end feed fittings adaptors are still available

Indeed, I used a soldered end feed convertor to go from 3/4 to 22mm. I did try compression, but one wouldn't seal on a standard copper olive, the other did on a brass one.

Cheers

Paul.

Speedfit do a connector for 1/2 inch to 15mm. Although when I used it I found it to be a little loose (but no leaks) so I just used a standard fitting which was a little tighter to push on but with no ill effect.

Yup. Much to my surprise, our local Wickes holds stock of 3/4" to 22mm end-feed and solder ring fittings.

|On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 17:46:50 +0000, Dave Fawthrop | wrote: | |>If you are into Yorkshire or end feed fittings adaptors are still available | |Yup. Much to my surprise, our local Wickes holds stock of 3/4" to 22mm |end-feed and solder ring fittings.

Mine doesn't :-(

I bought two 3/4" to 22mm solder ring fittings because I thought the old pipework here was 3/4". It turns out I was wrong - it is metric, so I have two of them lying around here going to waste.

So if anyone's having difficultly getting hold of any, I'll bung 'em in a jiffy bag to the first person who e-mails me their postal address. They're of no use at all to me, and I've taken them out of the packet so I doubt Wickes will take them back.

|On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:46:31 +0000, Dave Fawthrop | wrote: | |>On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 19:31:28 +0000, Chris Cowley wrote: |>

|>|On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 17:46:50 +0000, Dave Fawthrop |>| wrote: |>| |>|>If you are into Yorkshire or end feed fittings adaptors are still available |>| |>|Yup. Much to my surprise, our local Wickes holds stock of 3/4" to 22mm |>|end-feed and solder ring fittings. |>

|>Mine doesn't :-( | |I bought two 3/4" to 22mm solder ring fittings because I thought the old |pipework here was 3/4". It turns out I was wrong - it is metric, so I |have two of them lying around here going to waste.

Things like that go into my copper plumbing bits box, because they may come in useful sometime in the future.

True enough. My problem is that I always forget what I've got stashed away and end up buying things several times over on the assumption that "there's no way I've already got one of those". I found a telescopic basin bottle trap in a cupboard the other day; I have absolutely no idea why I'd have bought one, nor any idea of when I bought it.

I dread to think what I'll be like when I'm old(er).

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