It's been a while since I have used these, so I just wanted a sanity check ...
You clean up the pipe end with wore wool. Dip into flux, and insert into the connection, and gently heat with blowtorch until you see a bead of solder at the end ? Using a heat mat behind, if there's a wall there ?
Is it really that simple as I remember ?
Also I noticed a few sites sell "solder ring" fittings and "Yorkshire fittings" with different prices. What's the difference ????
Solder ring have the solder already in them & Yorkshire (as befits the county) don't :-)
You need to use your own solder (Pb for personal preference as I can never get Pb- to flow)
Avpx
"A solder ring fitting, also known by the trademarked name Yorkshire fitting, is a pre-soldered capillary connector for joining copper pipes used in plumbing"
Cheers
Dave R
surely solder-ring is just a generic name for the yorkshire type?
it's end-feed where you need to supply your own solder
Yorkshire is probably the brand - solder ring a generic.
Yorkshire fittings have always seemed very poor value to me - and look less good due to the bulge which contains the solder. So I only use capillary fittings with my own solder. Much cheaper.
A decent active water based aggressive flux like Everflux is my choice too
- but do make sure any excess is wiped off the outside with a damp cloth and the pipes flushed through properly.
Which was my understanding ... I'm talking about the connections with solder already in.
Ah, may be I mis-remembered - I always use the 'supply your own solder' type as I find them easier to use.
Avpx
No care for appearance ... will be tucked well away. And it's only 3 fittings, not a replumb, so a few pence extra seems fair.
Good points TX. System will be powerflushed so hopefully that'll sort it all out.
I would also wire-wool or wire brush the inside of the fitting (you can get brushes made to do the job). Brush is better than wire wool in fact, you don't really want to leave fibres of wire wool inside the fitting.
Reminds me of working in the motor trade when we had a tool with a brush for inside and outside of battery terminals ...
Frowned upon in Treznal... apparently sometimes a bit of iron thread gets trapped, leading to corrosion and leaks. Official method is to use Scotchbrite-type abrasive pads. (Or make sure that there's no iron bits left with a wipe...)
I have and use a "fitting brush", does both outside and inside diameters. And it gets even a paint-encrusted pipe sparkling clean in a few twists, and the flux is left with very little to do. Probably not cost-efficient for three fittings.
Thomas Prufer
I learned at my father's knee so to speak, using yorkshire fittings as that was what he (gas-board trained) used.
I used to use Fry's fluxite (again Dad's habits rubbed off on me) until I used some LaCo which I found much better and have used that since.
Good tools are never a waste ... as the pipe cutters I bought ages ago will show, when I do this job :)
I notice that Wickes sell a "Monument" fitting brush. But looking for that on specialist "plumbers merchant" sites (like the one supplying the EXV) draws a blank.
There's actually no need with a decent flux. As an experiment I soldered stuff which had been lying around in my cellar for years and had gone very dull, using Everflux. And took it apart afterwards. Perfectly tinned.
I prefer those cleaning strips to wire wool these days.
I'm ever so chuffed I found a 70cm length of 22mm in the garage. I only need about 40, so can spare a few cm experimenting. Thanks for the tip.
Actually, I've got loads of 15mm with spare fittings, now I recall ....
Toolsatan sell one
the 15mm internal brush soon crushes down so it looses effectiveness though, but the external ring of spikes stays good.
But then it did not matter! With my luck I would get a leak.
I use emery cloth or paper to clean the pipe. Using a pipe cutter makes a neater end to the pipe than using a hack saw.
I like this shape:
though the price is silly compared to the Toolsatan one...
The ring of spikes really bites!
Thomas Prufer
Yorkshire are solder ring.
Don't solder ring fitting all come with lead free solder these days?
I've found this to be very good
I also clean of the outside and edge of the fitting using (as well as the inside) the tool in the link.
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