Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Near boiler pipe diameter and restriction questions. Also exhaust coupling question

Options
2»

Comments

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,695
    Options
    TT_Vert said:

    Yeah it's a technique you learn over time I'm sure. If I gave myself some more practice I'm sure I'd become competent. In my case I must not have cleaned the pipes well enough. I found one joint last night that started dripping about 30 minutes after it was all together so I need to drain the system again today and fix that one. Sure enough it's a stub I reused. I dunno what the deal was, perhaps it was the age of the copper and oxidization I could not get off. It was shiny copper albeit at least 15 year old copper.

    Dave

    I've soldered to 60+ year old copper.

    What flux and solder are you using? What torch?
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • TT_Vert
    TT_Vert Member Posts: 57
    Options
    ChrisJ said:

    TT_Vert said:

    Yeah it's a technique you learn over time I'm sure. If I gave myself some more practice I'm sure I'd become competent. In my case I must not have cleaned the pipes well enough. I found one joint last night that started dripping about 30 minutes after it was all together so I need to drain the system again today and fix that one. Sure enough it's a stub I reused. I dunno what the deal was, perhaps it was the age of the copper and oxidization I could not get off. It was shiny copper albeit at least 15 year old copper.

    Dave

    I've soldered to 60+ year old copper.

    What flux and solder are you using? What torch?
    I have to assume it's a bernzomatic torch head and i'm using mapp gas. No idea what flux/solder i'm using to be honest but I'm sure it was from home depot probably 15 years old. I went through that and got some more new stuff from home depo after but I have no idea what joints were with what solder. I did a post mortem on a few of them and sure enough the solder didn't even adhere. I'm going to chalk it up to me not cleaning and more than likely some brush fibers getting in there on occasion. I learned that was a problem pretty quickly. Either way I tore both joints apart today that were leaking, cleaned them and resoldered and everything is good now. Thanks for all the input from you guys on this one. I was above my pay grade but a bit of encouragement got me going. At least now I fully understand this system and each subsystem given I put it all together. Here is the final product, i still need to play w/ the ODR but it's working and not leaking so that's a good start. Hard to tell by the pic but my welding glove fingers are now about 1" shorter and bent in awkward cripple finger orientation.
    Very strange given they are made to deal w/ heat.






    ChrisJ
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,695
    Options
    Obviously soldering takes skill, you know that from electronics.

    But it also takes good tools.

    Im sure the torch is fine but I'd highly urge you to get these few things for the future.

    https://www.supplyhouse.com/Rectorseal-14115-Nokorode-95-5-Pre-Tinning-Paste-Flux-in-Tool-Box-8-oz

    Or


    https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin-PTCD-1-1-2-x-3-4-ID-Copper-Brush-Deburrer-Black

    Heat mostly the fitting until you start to see the flux turn silver and then start feeding solder to it.  Once the solder starts flowing pull your heat away.

    It'll make a huge difference I promise


    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • TT_Vert
    TT_Vert Member Posts: 57
    Options
    ChrisJ said:

    Obviously soldering takes skill, you know that from electronics.

    But it also takes good tools.

    Im sure the torch is fine but I'd highly urge you to get these few things for the future.

    https://www.supplyhouse.com/Rectorseal-14115-Nokorode-95-5-Pre-Tinning-Paste-Flux-in-Tool-Box-8-oz


    Or


    https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin-PTCD-1-1-2-x-3-4-ID-Copper-Brush-Deburrer-Black

    Heat mostly the fitting until you start to see the flux turn silver and then start feeding solder to it.  Once the solder starts flowing pull your heat away.

    It'll make a huge difference I promise


    Thanks, i'm actually done w/ the soldering for the immediate future but i'll check out those links.. What my technique ended up being was heating the pipe until I saw the flux bubble then touching the pipe every few seconds on the backside to see if it'd melt. if it did melt well i'd stop applying heat. if the solder dried very quickly I knew it wasn't hot enough. As i went on my joints got much better looking for sure and i dripped less solder also.

    Dave

    ChrisJ

Categories