Bending/Joining Copper Pipe

[Dale7905]

I'm replacing some hot and cold faucets on clothes washers with single lever dual ball valves to enable shutting off the washer water supply quickly and easily in several rental units. The water supply is through 1/2" inch ridgid copper pipe. In most cases, bending the pipes slightly and using compression
fittings (vice soldered fittings) on the pipes would make the installation a bit quicker and easier.

However I 've read and heard that the ridgid copper pipe is _not_ meant to be bent, nor are compression fittings intended for ridgid copper pipe. I'd appreciate any comments from experienced plumbers if these are true statements. Thanks for your response.

Dale

[plumbdog10]

1) The rigid copper tubing should not be bent.
2) Compression fittings can be used on rigid copper tubing.

[ToUtahNow]

Actually, although it is not done often in plumbing; both hard and soft copper are approved in the UPC for bending. There are limits to the radius and methods of bending but the tube is said to gain strenght at properly made bends.

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

dale, the dog and utah are both right. in theory, hard copper can be bent, but it is seldom done. compression joints are done on 99% of all angle stops installed on copper stub outs. the 1% exception is my buddie who likes brass nipples with drop ear 90'S.

now for your answer to the washing machine valve. dont do it!:eek:
those combination 1 handle hot cold valves are good in theory, but bad in the real world. they will leak eventually at the ball joint, the handle will break off, and there is no way to adjust the water temperature to fine tune your wash.

the easiest and i believe the best way is to swap out the 2 bad valves with the newer style ball valve laundry shut offs. they come in both ips (threaded) and compression. they are chrome plated brass and have a lever handle. with 2 separate valves the pipe can stay where it's at and you can fine tune the temperature. plus it's 1/3 the cost of the the combination valve. :D no soldering and no bending pipe.

rick.

[Dale7905]

Dog, Mark, Rick,

Thanks so much for your rapid responses. I really appreciate them. I just discovered this site about 3 weeks ago and am learning a great deal from it, as well as getting a greater 'comfort factor' when doing some plumbing chores I've never haven't done before, or hiring a plumber to do a job..

Rick, I hadn't seen or heard of the newer style ball valve laundry shut offs you mentioned, but I'm going to see if I can find them. From what you said it seems to be a very good option for what I'd like to do.

Thanks again all.

Dale

[HVAC HAWK]

i have bent hard copper a little bit by heating the pipe about 8" to 12" were i wanted to bend it. the bend it slow so you do not kink the pipe

for valves you can use a threaded full port ball valve with a male thread x compression in one side of the valve.
the other side use a male thread x garden hose thread .

you can get all this at any hardware store

just another option

[plumbdog10]

Utah,

Haven't heard from you for awhile, but I haven't been involved completly myself. I agree that the UPC allows bending of copper, but I suggested not doing it. I assume that the situation he is in is not best of circumstances. He is not a pro, and the situation he is in is a small piece of coppper (based on my image of the situation) which will not work on bending, particularly if you are placing a compression fitting on the tube. On a short piece it will deform the tube and not allow the ferrel.

My best advice, and this is why I don't like giving advice to non-plumbers, is to hire a professional.

Hope you are doing fine Utah.

[ToUtahNow]

Dog,

I am fine and thank you for asking. I left home on January 2nd to work on projects in Henderson, Nevada, Sparks, Nevada, Drapper, Utah and Marysvale, Utah. I finally got home on Wednesday night February 8th. I had my lap top with me but was too busy for the Internet.

As for the bending of copper I've only done one custom home which was speced for bent copper in the slab. The job turned out looking great but was very labor intensive and a lot of wasted materials (oops). It is not something I would ever recommend doing.

Mark

[PLUMBER RICK]

i have bent hard copper a little bit by heating the pipe about 8" to 12" were i wanted to bend it. the bend it slow so you do not kink the pipe

for valves you can use a threaded full port ball valve with a male thread x compression in one side of the valve.
the other side use a male thread x garden hose thread .

you can get all this at any hardware store

just another option

hawk, heating of copper to the point of anealing the tubing is not legal for plumbing. the issues is that on 1 side of the bend you're streching the tubing and on the other side you're compressing the tubing. soft copper is already anealed and is approved for this. we do get some unintentional bending when using silflos on joints that are not supported properly.

rick.

[HVAC HAWK]

thanks plumber

guess i have out of plumbing to long to know all the legal things :confused: