It is also good to have water around in case your plumbing torchwork lights a FIRE.
About 10 years ago my father was working on a pipe at my house, he set the torch down to work on the fitting and when he looked back a dresser was on fire! He put the fire out with some wet towels he had been using to soak up the water from the pipe.
I only have one of those little propane torches, takes forever to get a copper joint warm enough to solder. Once we move I'm upgrading to a better torch.
If by "little propane torches" Eugene, you mean the torch that screws on a propane bottle about, oh 10 or 12" tall by about 3" in diameter, that's all I have and that's all you need. If you have one of those, instead of Propane, buy Mapp gas. It burns hotter and will speed up your work. It costs a little more though. A good investment is a hose connector for those tight spots. You can lay the bottle down and have a "detached" torch.
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DON'T BE SCARED -Stretch
Registered: 03/08/03
Posts: 1019
Loc: East Tennessee near Bristol
Quote:
predecessor to PEX
If its the stuff I'm thinking of & IIRC, the problems were with the product from a company that was infringing the patent on the original mfg. It was a gray color similar to the 18% cards used by photographers.
That's the stuff. But I don;t think the problem was fake stuff, because builders aren;t allowed to use that material in any residential home regardless of manufacturer. It just degrades over time and can;t handle normal household water pressures.
_________________________
DON'T BE SCARED -Stretch
The stuff is still used across the pond. From what i remember the pipe itself wasn't the big problem, it was the fittings. The plastic used in the fittings was not well suited to be used in water systems here and would fracture without warning.
Tsk Tsk...only 5 nines of reliability, oh the shame
I won't claim total redundancy, although I did add extra shut off valves and petcocks on my new hot water heater when I installed in a couple of years back. And, yes, it's copper.
Sidenote, actually 5 nines is nothing to sneeze at.
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