Imperial Olives

[Welderpaul]

I need to rip out grannys bathroom and kitchen later this month so i've got hold of some 15mm and 22mm compression cap ends.

There's a chance that the pipes may be imperial. I don't want to find myself on a Saturday afternoon with caps that won't fit and the shops shut, so collecting a few bits.

Can I just swap the metric 15/22mm olives in normal fittings for imperial olives such as these?

 

[Seadog]

Yes, but you may find the 1/2" pipe , if that's what you have, is too tight a fit in the stop-end.

 

[Burdekin]

Or use plastic push fit. They work really well on copper pipe if staying copper and less chance of a leak than with compression fittings.

 

[Welderpaul]

Or use plastic push fit. They work really well on copper pipe if staying copper and less chance of a leak than with compression fittings.

I'm old school so like using good old Yorkshire solder fittings. Problem is the pipes may still have water in them when i cut them so i've bought compression fittings.

Do they do plastic imperial fittings?

 

[Burdekin]

I'm old school so like using good old Yorkshire solder fittings. Problem is the pipes may still have water in them when i cut them so i've bought compression fittings.

Do they do plastic imperial fittings?

Don't know. 1/2 is just a wee bit larger so a light hit with some emery.

 

[Bullet2012]

Am I the only one that thought , pitted or stuffed

 

[mike os]

15mm is fine 22 you want 3/4 For ideally but 22 sometimes works with a bit of tape

 

[awemawson]

A trick for soldering pipes that you cannot drain - it sounds odd but I assure you that it works:

Get some soft bread (no crust at all) roll it into a tight ball and force it up the pipe away from the joint. Work quickly and make your joint. When you turn the water back on the dough will be forced out of the tap. Any remnants will soften and flush out easily.

 

[brightspark]

15mm is fine 22 you want 3/4 For ideally but 22 sometimes works with a bit of tape

as said 22mm compression fittings pull down to old 3/4 pipe and half inch the same as 15 mm just the solder 22mm don't work on 3/4 pipe

 

[Kayos]

You can put 3/4 olives in 22 fittings, no need on 15
You can get 22mm to 3/4 soldered adaptors, called 1im in Yorkshire speak, again no need for 1/2 pipe to 15

 

[pedrobedro]

Get some soft bread (no crust at all) roll it into a tight ball and force it up the pipe away from the joint. Work quickly and make your joint.

Years ago at my mum's I was moving the kitchen sink but the stop cock would not seal. I tried the bread trick and water was still getting through so in the end I got oxy acetylene tackle further up the pipe and heated it so the water was evaporated before it got to the joint I was sealing. Got the job done.

 

[Welderpaul]

Thanks chaps. Called in at a couple of plumbing places and B&Q today.

All readily sold 3/4 olives but none sold 1/2, or even thought you could get them.

Sorted then

 

[dobbslc]

I've been doing a lot of patching up work on the old plumbing in my house and it's all imperial pipe. Get some 3\4" olives from a proper plumbers merchant, they should all stock them. For the 1/2" you can use 15mm compression olives no problem, use both in new metric fittings.
I put a bit of Jet Blue jointing compound around the olive more to lubricate it as I do it up than as a sealant, seems to work well.

 

[Farside]

Then there's Irish 1/2"... I found that a lot of UK-made items like showers and Italian taps would happily mate with Irish 1/2" by using a 15mm compression fitting and an Irish olive. The plumbing market here went metric years ago, but I can still buy anything in Irish Imperial, including pushfit, which is nice.