Soldering close to soldered fitting

FrankMaraschino

I have a situation where a pro-press tee fitting on my gas boiler's return line is leaking. It's 1" from an adjacent press fitting, which is 1/2" less than the minimum distance specified by Viega to do any soldering.

Since I don't own a press tool, my first thought was to cut out the section just past the adjacent press fitting and solder replacement copper pipe with a new tee. I have some experience soldering copper, but I'll admit I've never soldered new fittings that close to existing soldered fittings, and I'm a little concerned the old fitting might get borked in the process of doing the new soldering.

What do you guys think?

mattmia2

wrap a wet rag around the propress fitting.

pecmsg

that’s close

You can try but be prepared to replace the T.

109A_5

If it were me, I'd remove the mess encircled in Red by cutting at the Yellow arrow and un-solder at the Orange arrow and rebuild as needed.

DCContrarian

"Since I don't own a press tool, my first thought was to cut out the section just past the adjacent press fitting and solder replacement copper pipe with a new tee."

If the tee is the press fitting that needs replacement I'd cut out both press fittings and replace the whole section with solder.

Maybe even take off the solder elbow and go fresh from there.

hot_rod

ive soldered up against this heat sink putty

109A_5

@hot_rod, Ive heard of heat sink putty before, never tried it. Is it one time use or is it reusable ?

EBEBRATT-Ed

Cut it all out and sweat it. It will take less time than worrying about the press fittings. You have plenty of copper coming out of the valve on the run of the tee. Remove the PP tee and coupling and sweat it.

No need to spend $25 on heat block for what a few fittings cost.

FrankMaraschino

Thanks, gents. I should have been clearer. I’m not worried about any of the press fittings, I was concerned that soldering too close to soldered elbow on the left of the assembly might compromise it.

Removing the whole enchilada and just sweating a new assembly is an approach that’s so simple I’m a little ashamed I didn’t think of it in the first place. But you guys are pros and I’m not!

Thanks again everyone

GW

that other half inch copper 90? You’d have to roast that fitting to come close to melting solder on that other fitting. All the pros are worried about that pro press fitting, you’re gonna heat up that rubber O-ring.

GroundUp

I'd cut on the left side of the press coupling and on the right of the press tee, then piece it back together with 2 repair couplings (maybe even a union?). Start with the left side of the tee and work your way outward, minimizing the heat on the existing sweat fittings. As long as you have everything fluxed properly and can control the heat, there shouldn't be any concern with the existing sweat joints.