Trying to make a baseboard connection. We tried connecting the old 90* elbow with bleeder valve to the new baseboard element's pipe using a short piece of 3/4" pipe and two 45* elbows. We had a tough time getting these 45* joints sealed and we kept having leaks every time we tested. After a few attempts, the joints had too much old solder to have much hope of getting a good seal, so we decided to start over.
We cut and removed the elbows; when pulling the short piece of pipe (that bridged between the old 90* elbow and the first 45* elbow) out of the 90* elbow, the elbow cracked.
As you can see from pics below, the pipe comes out of the ground at an angle, so not much working room on the backside of the pipe.
The ground here is slab - probably a few inches thick, and then dirt below. Pipe runs underground to another baseboard on the same/ground floor. Not sure if it's sitting in the dirt or in the concrete - house is in NY and was built in the 1960s if that provides a clue on how the pipe was run.
We removed the 90* elbow, which came off fairly easily, but the top of the pipe coming out of the ground was cracked (it is very thin - they really cheaped out using such thin copper for an underground run), so I cut the cracked portion off using a hacksaw. Started sanding and noticed that the back of the pipe is slightly deformed:
So I cut 3/4" off the pipe to remove the deformed portion. Problem I'm facing now is the top of the pipe isn't perfectly round. A coupling will not fit on.
What's the best way to proceed? I could try to round the top of the pipe using a crescent wrench (spinning it around to reshape the oval into a circle). Or buy a tool like this Pasco copper sizing tool (#4344 for 3/4" pipe): http://www.pascospecialty.com/products/C17.pdf
In terms of connection options, I may have just enough pipe to go with a Sharkbite 90* elbow - and then connect oxygen barrier pex between the Sharkbite elbow and a Sharkbite coupling I'd put on the baseboard element's pipe. Benefit of using pex here is reducing the number of joints given the pipe coming out of the ground is not in line with baseboard element's pipe. Of course sweating copper is another option - using a couple of 45* elbows to get everything lined up.
My concern is that I'm running out of exposed pipe - there's 1-1/4" above ground. If I screw up this exposed pipe using a crescent wrench (or if that simply doesn't get it round enough to get a good seal with either a Sharkbite or sweated-on copper elbow), or if using a sizing/rerounding tool damages the pipe underground, then I'm looking at a lot more work to break up the concrete.
Sweat-on copper elbow seems like the better option given the limited amount of pipe, but I'm worried that unless it's perfectly round, there might be little gaps between the pipe and elbow that won't fill up with solder since the elbow would sit on top - i.e., seems unlikely the solder is going to flow up to fill any gaps other than at the very bottom of the joint.
Given how thin walled this pipe is and that it already cracked when removing the old 90* elbow, I'm worried and figured I'd ask here before proceeding.
We cut and removed the elbows; when pulling the short piece of pipe (that bridged between the old 90* elbow and the first 45* elbow) out of the 90* elbow, the elbow cracked.
As you can see from pics below, the pipe comes out of the ground at an angle, so not much working room on the backside of the pipe.
The ground here is slab - probably a few inches thick, and then dirt below. Pipe runs underground to another baseboard on the same/ground floor. Not sure if it's sitting in the dirt or in the concrete - house is in NY and was built in the 1960s if that provides a clue on how the pipe was run.
We removed the 90* elbow, which came off fairly easily, but the top of the pipe coming out of the ground was cracked (it is very thin - they really cheaped out using such thin copper for an underground run), so I cut the cracked portion off using a hacksaw. Started sanding and noticed that the back of the pipe is slightly deformed:
So I cut 3/4" off the pipe to remove the deformed portion. Problem I'm facing now is the top of the pipe isn't perfectly round. A coupling will not fit on.
What's the best way to proceed? I could try to round the top of the pipe using a crescent wrench (spinning it around to reshape the oval into a circle). Or buy a tool like this Pasco copper sizing tool (#4344 for 3/4" pipe): http://www.pascospecialty.com/products/C17.pdf
In terms of connection options, I may have just enough pipe to go with a Sharkbite 90* elbow - and then connect oxygen barrier pex between the Sharkbite elbow and a Sharkbite coupling I'd put on the baseboard element's pipe. Benefit of using pex here is reducing the number of joints given the pipe coming out of the ground is not in line with baseboard element's pipe. Of course sweating copper is another option - using a couple of 45* elbows to get everything lined up.
My concern is that I'm running out of exposed pipe - there's 1-1/4" above ground. If I screw up this exposed pipe using a crescent wrench (or if that simply doesn't get it round enough to get a good seal with either a Sharkbite or sweated-on copper elbow), or if using a sizing/rerounding tool damages the pipe underground, then I'm looking at a lot more work to break up the concrete.
Sweat-on copper elbow seems like the better option given the limited amount of pipe, but I'm worried that unless it's perfectly round, there might be little gaps between the pipe and elbow that won't fill up with solder since the elbow would sit on top - i.e., seems unlikely the solder is going to flow up to fill any gaps other than at the very bottom of the joint.
Given how thin walled this pipe is and that it already cracked when removing the old 90* elbow, I'm worried and figured I'd ask here before proceeding.