scrap metal

after pulling all the plumbing out of the airing cupboard I now have a pile of copper pipe, and a water tank with immersion heater inside it.

The copper has all the brass fittings on the ends and the tank is wrapped in the usual foam insulation

Anyone know,....

  1. is it worth going to a scrap dealer with this small amount
  2. if yes, would I need to separate the brass from the copper and do I need to somehow remove the foam from the tank?

(Not interested in selling the 5 yr old tank,pump etc they're used and I'm sure eBay will return minimal amounts)

TIA

Reply to
Vass
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Yes, it is worthwhile weighing it in. Ring round first to see what they are paying, one local to me pays £1.30/kg, another around £2.50, so it pays to make a few calls.

If you can, take off the foam first. It comes off pretty easy if you attack it with a Stanley knife. £10+ for the tank alone. No real need to separate brass and copper. Pure copper gets a slightly better price, though for small amounts it isnt worth bothering with. I've never separated any of mine.

Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

In message , Vass writes

Well worth a visit to a scrappy, mate of mine had a plastic dustbin with a fair bit of 15mm pipe in it, not too heavy, could easily be picked up and he got £50:00 for it last week. Brass fittings still attached. no idea on the foam though.

Reply to
Bill

Yes.

A few minutes with a pipe cutter gives you clean copper free of solder and brass, which should attract a better price, and a pile of trimmings.

I'd keep the tank myself (sliced and packed flat), as copper sheet is always useful.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

About 18 months ago I removed all the piping and ( uninsulated ) hot water cylinder from a 2 up, 2 down terraced before having a new CH system fitted there.

I didn't seperate the brass.

There was 28mm, 22mm and 15mm pipe.

I too wondered whether it was worthwhile taking it for scrap but as the scrap dealer was only a mile away I loaded the trailer with it not knowing what to expect.

They had a quick look over the trailer on entry, weighed the loaded trailer on entry then weighed it unloaded on exit.

Proof of identity was needed.

£110 on exit - I was suprised - definately worthwhile. I cant remember now but this load might have also included some old lead cable removed from the same property and weighed seperately.

I later took the removed radiators ( I think there were 6 in all ) to the same place and 2 scrap boilers and a couple of odds and sods ( 2 car wheels without tyres and two front brake disks ).

£85 was a suprise for me.

Guess it depends what transport you have and how far away the scrap dealer is but it was definately worthwhile for me.

I had to unload all the scrap from my trailer though whilst in their yard.

I used a scrap dealer that was used to weighing wagon loads of scrap and had a weighbridge at the entry point so I guess they are a commercial scrap dealer as opposed to a scrap yard.

Reply to
Booty

By now I guess the OP has been to the scrap yard but my experience was that for copper it is definitely worth a visit but less so for other metals. I think I was told they pay one hundred pounds a tonne for steel, so you need an awful lot before you get much money. Any amount is better than nothing, which you'd get if you used your bin or the tip, so if it is close by or en route, it is still worth popping in.

I'm not a fan of those commercial types with weigh bridges as I found they were not geared up to accept small domestic weights of things and the one by me seemed to have scrap all over the place which seemed to be a puncture waiting to happen. It's no good getting a few pounds for metal and then having to spend sixty times as much on new tyres.

I once took various "bare" copper pipes but inadvertently left a lock shield on the end of one and the *~!@ gave me the lower rate because it had brass on. It wouldn't have hurt them to weight that piece separately!

HTH

Reply to
Fred

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