Reusing compression olives

Yes you should. No I didn't.

Christian.

I'm puzzled... As the olive practically cold welds itself to the pipe, how are you supposed to get it off? AFAIK you can undo and tighten up compression fittings as many times as you like. I've never heard of any requirement to replace olives each time.

IME if the fitting is done up properly and not distorted, there is no need to replace the olive.

You get it off by *very* carefully hacksawing a slot in the olive, insert a big screwdriver and twist, it pings off. But if you nick the pipe with the saw you will never get the new joint to seal. So I think you are better reusing the old olive & I don't see any reason not to.

Supposedly a hacksaw. My opinion is that you're more likely to get success (and much more quickly) by reusing the old olive than hacking the pipe around. You can get proper olive removers, but they're expensive.

I think I may have misread the original question. Obviously, you reuse the olive if just retightening an old joint. I was thinking that the entire valve had been replaced. (i.e. replacing handwheel with TRV).

Christian.

I don't normally replace the olive unless I want to replace the nut as well (with a nice shiny new one) that you can't remove because of the olive.

To remove the old olive I use a junior hacksaw blade and cut through the olive as far as I dare, so the pipe is not damaged. Then using a suitable flat bladed screwdriver put in the slot and twist. The olive should then become free (as will the nut!).

Dave

I don't, often (almost allways) they are stuck to the pipe real well.

I just clean them up, and re-wrap with PTFE.

Rick

You probably don't even need the PTFE: I either use nothing but the olive or, if the joint is likely to be inaccessible, a bit of boss white. Seems to work pretty well!

Ben.

Use some Boss White and re-use the olive.

Even in this case I would leave the nut+olive on the supply pipe unless the new valve was one of the sort where the 'nut' is now in the form of a plug.

If its the same fitting and pipe then clean up with wire wool then lightly smear with jointing compound. No problem.

So long as the fitting hasn't been over tightened I find you can usually get the old olive off by adjusting a large adjustable spanner to snuggly fit the pipe, and using it as a slide hammer on the nut of the fitting against the olive. But having got it off I wouldn't re-use it unless my back was to the wall (ie Sunday night everywhere closed and wife wants a shower!) and then I would aneal it (heat to red hot) before use.

Andrew Mawson

On the issue of removing olives ( not required when reffiting existing compression joints..usually ) I noticed a plumber using an olive nibbler. Looked like a pair of pliers whith biting ends. Just cut through an olive in a second leaving the pipe intact.

Alternatively get one of these tools:

PoP

Oh something for the Christmas list... Naw I get on quite well with the junior hacksaw and screwdriver, slower I guess but I'd rather have a LED binary clock. B-)

The hacksaw doesn't work so well where there is restricted space..... :)

PoP

One of these perhaps:

At £24.46 inc VAT +PP, this is very expensive to use for the odd occassion. And only for 15mm too. I supose a similar price for the 22mm and more for a