Any plumbers/Solder'ers in the house?

[Todd Burch]

I'm gearing up to take a welding class via the local high school's continuing education program. In preparation, I figured I would read my book on welding, "The Welder's Bible". There is a chapter on soldering and it spends a lot of time on sweating copper pipes. While reading this, it reminded me of the observations I made while my house was being built.

The book says to use a corrosive flux for sweating pipes - it cleans the copper better than a non-corrosive flux. The book goes on to say that the joint should be wiped clean (of the excess flux) when finished with the joint. This is what struck a chord in my memory banks.

This cleaning of the joints never occurred with the pipes in my house. I distinctly remember a heavy green buildup of what I guess was copper oxidation or corrosion at the sweatings. Will this (this=non-cleaned joints) cause long term damage or premature failure of the pipes?

If it will cause premature failure, can you put that in perspective? For instance, the pipes might fail in 90 years instead of failing through "natural causes" in 100 years? If this is the case, I say "so what" and go on with life.

Thanks, Todd

[Frank Hagan]

When I was a plumber we never cleaned the pipes after soldering. I didn't do house plumbing, but did commercial jobs. The goal was to make your solder joints neat without being a wimp and wiping them off. Besides, anyone that took time to wipe them off was not going to make it in a "production environment".

I really wouldn't worry about it. You would see leaking pipes all over the place if it was required. A far bigger worry is if there's an iron nail somewhere lying beside the copper pipe in the soil ... that WILL corrode through the side of the copper pipe. THAT happens all the time.

You did count the nails to make sure there were none in the trench, right? :p

[Larry Browning]

Hey Todd, Do you ever get any sleep at night?:eek: Jist kidding!!!!

[Stuart Johnson]

A little add on question.. For whatever reason I have not been able to solder any pipes in our current house. I turn the water off at the main and open all the faucets and there will still be just enough drip two hours later to prevent me from soldering on connections. I seem to remember there is something that can be put in the pipe to seal it but will disolve after a short bit. Is this so or have I been watching too much "ask this old house"?

[Steve Jenkins]

A little add on question.. For whatever reason I have not been able to solder any pipes in our current house. I turn the water off at the main and open all the faucets and there will still be just enough drip two hours later to prevent me from soldering on connections. I seem to remember there is something that can be put in the pipe to seal it but will disolve after a short bit. Is this so or have I been watching too much "ask this old house"?
The "good ol standby" for this is white bread with no crust. Just enough of a little ball to plug the pipe.

[Tyler Howell]

The "good ol standby" for this is white bread with no crust. Just enough of a little ball to plug the pipe.
What Steve said. Works great. Pull the strainers on the down-stream faucets to flush out the bread when finished;)

[Travis Porter]

Yea, what Tyler said. Bread doesn't blow out of the aerators at the spigots very well.

[Jarrod Nelson]

A little add on question.. For whatever reason I have not been able to solder any pipes in our current house. I turn the water off at the main and open all the faucets and there will still be just enough drip two hours later to prevent me from soldering on connections. I seem to remember there is something that can be put in the pipe to seal it but will disolve after a short bit. Is this so or have I been watching too much "ask this old house"?

I was having the same problem in my basement until I turned on the washing machine. I didn't think of that as a closed faucet, but I guess it was.

[Frank Hagan]

Yep, the white bread trick. Whole grain breads with nuts and twigs should not be used!

[Stuart Johnson]

I'll be.. white bread. Thanks.

Now just how did someone come to look at a none draining pipe and decide "I'll just cram a bit of my lunch sandwich in there"?

[Bill Lewis]

Not just any white bread but WONDER BREAD should be used for the best results.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Not just any white bread but WONDER BREAD should be used for the best results.
In his earlier post, Frank just got done telling us that you shouldn't get iron close to the copper pipes. Now here you come along talking about stuffing Wonder Bread in these copper pipes. Hello? I've seen the commercials. Isn't Wonder Bread rich in vitamins and minerals? Minerals like...I dunno...iron?

(Just kidding Bill, but I saw the chain dangling, and couldn't resist the opportunity to yank it.) :D

- Vaughn

[Frank Hagan]

I'll be.. white bread. Thanks.

Now just how did someone come to look at a none draining pipe and decide "I'll just cram a bit of my lunch sandwich in there"?

I'll bet that's exactly how it got started.

Being a former plumber, I can tell you ... its almost true what they say: "Plumbers only know two things ... s*!# (s*!@#) goes downhill and payday's on Friday."

Actually, plumbers really know three things. "Keep your fingers out of your mouth" is the third.

[Dave Richards]

If you want to keep in the inside of the copper tubing from getting scale on it, run a low pressure purge of nitrogen to eliminate the air (O2 really) just make sure there is a bleed somewhere so the pressure can't get too high or it'll blow out of the joint.

I don't imagine there's many house type plumbers that do that, though.

[Chris Walls]

I always heard the first rule of plumbing was S*#) runs down hill and the second was " hot water on the left". I think even most plumbers remember to keep the finger out of the mouth. The green on the joint is for the most part harmless, it can be cleaned off though. It is much easier to do when the joint was first made than a couple of years later though. Chris