How to Desolder and Clean Copper Pipe and Fittings
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- Опубліковано 27 гру 2020
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In this video I will be showing you how to desolder copper water pipe along with cleaning off the old solder and prepping the joint for soldering. We’re currently redoing all the plumbing in the house, some of the pipes were desoldered for removal. Desoldering maybe needed if components need to be removed or changed, there is a leak at a connection, or you’re removing pipe just like us. When working on water pipes, make sure you have turned the water supply off.
If you are working within studs, floor joists, or other flammable areas, it’s always important to take proper safety precautions so nothing becomes damaged or you cause a fire. When working around wood, I use a spray bottle with water to coat the wood. Then I put a steel barrier in place as a primary form of protection. While the steel does get hot, the flame won’t directly come in contact with a flammable object. Also, make sure any spider webs and dust have been cleaned away from the area too.
For this I am using a propane torch, I tend to use the camping style tanks as they have a larger base, keeping the torch upright with minimal risk of tipping over.
Lighting the torch is done by opening the valve of the torch a small amount until you can hear the gas flowing, then using a striker, ignition the gas.
When using a propane torch such as this, while it’s hard to see, the hottest point in the flame is the inner blue flame. The tip of the inner blue flame should be touching the pipe you want to heat up.
In my example, I can hold the pipe above the flame, however you may be required to hold the torch in place instead.
Heat the joint, I prefer to go at a slight angle towards the lowest point of the soldered connection as heat rises. The soldered joint is small enough where it’s not required to move the flame around. The reason I hold the flame at an offset from the soldered joint is to prevent any dripping solder from falling inside the torch.
The copper pipe will become hot, to make it manageable by hand, I’m wearing leather welding mitts. They won’t burn like other styles of gloves and have some resistance to the hot pipe.
Once that joint is hot enough, then pull apart the connection. You’ll need to be quick at this as the joint can cool off and the gloves are only resistant to the heat, they won’t stop the heat transfer when holding on close to the joint area for longer periods.
The same process can be used on the valve and you can also use the assistance of interlocking pliers. Just be careful when using pliers as you can mare or deform the pipe. When working with a valve, the amount of time required to heat up the joint will most likely be longer as the material is thicker. Some valves can be disassembled so you don’t damage the seals or you can have a wet cloth wrapped around the valve portion to keep the section cool. If you’re careful, other valves can be heated as is without any issues. Use the same process as between, heat the soldered section, allow the solder to liquify, then pull the connection apart.
If you are working with pipes still in place, the water must be drained from the system. Even a small amount of water present in the line, especially around the joint will cause problems where it can’t heat up properly. If you’re unable to heat the joint for separation, then you may need to work on a higher joint or just cut the pipe.
I prefer using a file to remove any thicker build-up of solder, being careful not to damage the copper pipe. Any damage to the copper pipe or making the pipe thinner will jeopardize its structure.
Next is using 180 grit emery paper to remove the rest of the solder. Not all of it needs to be removed, it just needs to be removed enough where it can fit into a new fitting. I already have a new fitting to test it out. Wrap the sandpaper around the pipe so it takes off material evenly.
Test the fit, once it’s good, you can finish up with a scuffing pad, this is rated at 400 grit. The scuffing pads are a great way of cleaning up copper pipes before and after soldering, they leave a clean satin finish behind.
Internal cleaning would have a similar procedure, but it is a little more work-intensive and time consuming. A file it’s recommended as it’s harder to use, you’ll have to roll a piece of sandpaper instead and twist it inside the soldering surface. A round wire brush can sometimes work too.
When done, once those connections are cleaned, they’re then ready for solder. Any leftover solder on the surface will liquefy and flow back into the joint with the new solder.
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Excellent. I came to your video specifically wanting to understand how best to remove the old solder (and whether I need to remove ALL of it) after taking a leaking soldered joint apart, before I remake it with the old components. Your video was the first one I found that gave a complete and reassuring answer. Many videos deal with taking old soldered joints apart, but skate over the steps needed to reuse the old components. Thank you for taking the time to film and post this and for the choice of keywords in your Title, which acted like a magnet!
Glad I could help and thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it!
Agree, great videos like this get hidden under mountains of low quality mass-produced copycat videos. You got to dig for quality! I've done lots of copper pipe soldering but I run into weird issues ever so often. I use water spray bottle & wet rags on valves but will need to use some metal outside against the stucco which has a fiber optic cable for the internet running next to the pipes I need to solder for an outdoor shower. could figure out how to mount the Flame cloth to the stucco :-) Also, I like using the camping style cylinder but wasn't sure if that was an accepted practice.
@cookerdonkin1333 good point - most people would say just throw the old pipes out but if you are replacing a sweat valve or need to rotate a pipe to move it out of the way of a repair these tips are really important. Also, they offer a proven method vs guessing and hoping it was done right.
Nice to see an informative video, professionally done.
Thank you so much!
I used to think the old solder had to be removed completely. That makes it difficult and time consuming. But I recently learned that's not the case. This is much better!
Nice , nice vocal presentation coupled with visual examples . And you got right to the point without explaining all about how important it is to have non leaky pipes, how I can save money doing it myself , blah , blah blah .
Great video and info on using old copper pipes.
Glad it was helpful and thank you!
great video. simple and to the point.
Thank you!
Thank you! Very informative video!
No problem and thank you for the feedback!
Awesome!! Thanks Buddy!!
I was a Coppersmith in the shipyards. I used fine steel wool to clean off the old solder after sweating off the old copper joints. It saves a lot of time because you don't have to use emery cloth to cleanup of dirty contaminated solder. Also, if you don't have steel wool you can get the pipe hot and use a wet rag and wipe the hot solder off the copper pipe. It's even easier than using steel wool and less clean up also. Some guys don't have steel wool and it saves a trip to the store this way. Just be careful and use leather gloves while doing this.
Very informative
nicely done.
Excellent video. The only issue is when you need to do this desolder in a enclosed area.. For example: inside of a wall, where is not possible to twist the pipe.
Here's a tip - you could cut the pipe, and splice in a new section of pipe and use "no stop" copper coupling - stop is removed so the coupling can be slid down the pipe then insert and slide in place - great for when there is zero room to move a pipe out of the way.
I prefer mapp gas for my plumbing needs because it heats up faster and just seems to work better. Especially for larger pipes
Map gas has been discontinued, they use the name for marketing purposes..
@@ostaz007 Yep...Mapp gas and now its replacement are really not that much hotter then propane.
Best to use a plumbers acetylene/air torch.
Is there a visual indicator you use to determine when the solder has melted enough to pull off the joint or fitting?
You can sometimes see the solder change from a satin to shinny finish. Typically I just go by experience as the solder can't always be seen if it was a clean joint. Other times you'll see the copper pipe change it's color tone. But neither is like steel where it becomes red when it's excessively hot.
With the price of copper what it is, reuse is the only way to go. I was hoping for some magic trick... There is none.. The welding gloves are essential as pliers are cumbersome and it's easy to gaul the pipe/fittings as you twist. . For internal surfaces I use a Dremel with a course burr on it. Solder seems to build up there for obvious reasons. It's time intensive any way you want to look at it. One hint: Rap the still hot fitting on a work bench or other safe surface to get as much as the solder off as possible... Thanks for the confirmation...
I came here exactly to see your technique on cleaning inside of a fitting. Grrrrrr
LOL no doubt, he probably doesn't do it. This was for a video, but he probably just buys replacements. The amount of time and effort to clean the fitting would be hard to defend.
The hottest part of a flame is the end of the flame where the fuel has given up all its energy. The light blue flame is fuel to be consumed and moving very fast.
Can I clean up an old joint and heat it up without removing the joint and finish it with additional solder? The lead is strongly bonded and brittle. More regular white flux is no use. I need to strengthen the solder without removing a jucntion
If you want to have a reliable joint, it's best to take it apart, clean it, and then resolder the connection.
To reused the fitting, can you heat the fitting up to melt the the solder and slip it back on the pipe and then keep heating the pipe and the fitting to the right temperature and add more solder to it? Oh per hap do the same thing to the pipe without the cleaning the solder.
I wouldn't recommend that, because in heating the fitting you likely will burn off all the flux that you did put on there. Honestly, refurbishing old fittings is rarely worth it, just buy new ones as they are usually pretty cheap.
@@LuminaryGames Fittings _used to be_ cheap, but now that even fast food is up something like 25%-75% it's looking more and more worth it to take two minutes cleaning an old fitting. $2 saved for 2 minutes works out to $60/hr
@@user-ut9ln4vd5m Honestly if it only takes you 2 minutes to get it to a state where its clean and ready to go, then yeah the numbers look good. For me on a good day I am looking closer to 10-15 minutes.
After desolder & cleaned can I install a sharkbite
Of course
I was watching a friend of mine trying remove a valve. The only issue was the pipe was still pressurized. The aftermath was the funniest sh.. I had ever seen.
Your doing it the easy safe way, what about when it's hooked up 5 inches away from the wall ,and the 2 turn off valve?
Use a steal plate to help keep the heat off the wall and keep a spray bottle with water or a fire extinguisher close by.
Cut it out, then resolder with butt joints
+
is it a good ideat o fix a leak talk about that for ahaf hour
Yeah, I didn’t clean the inside of the old fittings & now it’s leaking. 🤦🏿♂️
Easy you don't. Repeated heating and cooling causes hydrogen embrittlement and makes the pipe brittle. Do it once and do it right.
I had no idea you could reuse old copper pipes, recently threw away hundreds of feet of pipe from our 3 story building.
I had a pipe I sat there for 20 min and never did let go. I gave up and stuck the shut off back on. I’ll give it another try and if it doesn’t work I’ll have to call a jackass plumber I guess.
Sounds like there is still water inside the pipe.
It was. I finally got it eventually . Even though I was downstairs at the lowest point and drained all that out the pipe it went upstairs to another sink also and had water locked in still. I had to go upstairs and open that sink and it let it drain out. I guess it was air locked or whatever you would call it. Kinda like putting your finger on your straw and lifting out of the glass but once you release your finger it drains out.
@@whatfreedom7 That happens to me a lot at work (I'm a "jackass plumber"). There are a lot of reasons a pipe can retain or suck up water and there's no point trying to track the source down after you've shut off the water- what I do is carry a length of 1/4 in. pex tubing, and I suck the water out with my mouth.
Haha whatever works. I even tried blowing air to get it out at one point and that wasn’t even enough.
@@whatfreedom7 Yeah I've heard of some people taking a little, balled up piece of white bread and sticking it in the pipe to block any water. Supposedly the water pressure will let the bread dissolve and pass through the pipe once the water gets turned back on but I've always been afraid to try that in case it doesn't work and I end up having to cut the pipe open to get the bread out. Idk how you would even think of such a solution. Maybe someone had their lunch out at the same time they had that problem lol.
Why would anyone bother reusing 10-cent fittings and old copper pipe?
What economy are you living in?
Some fittings cost much more, e.g. a 1-inch union
10 cents lol! Browse a hardware store this millennium, great grandpa! They haven't been 10 cents since for about 50 years
What about an outdoor faucet (for garden hose) that was soldered onto a 1/2" threaded copper pipe? I'm hoping that the only solder material is on the outside and not between threads.
Only an absolute novice would solder a threaded joint. That completely negates the reason for the threaded joint.