Well.... who's got 5/8th inch copper tube in his domestic plumbing then???

[Ross365]

Well, no sooner had I put my Mr Smug outfit back in the wardrobe, having installed my new TRV, than I noticed drips falling from an overflow.

No surprise that it's the header tank for the heating. Now I've been in this house the best part of 30 years, but don't recall that needing attention previously and I was shocked when I lifted the lid off the tank. There's what is almost certainly a nice 1960's ballcock and the valve is encrusted with scale (like something raised from the Titanic) to the point you can barely tell what starts where on the fitting.

Long story short, the tank is actually fed by a 5/8th inch (~16mm) pipe going in to some ancient bulkhead fitting and having distinctly unfamiliar fitting inside the tank. First time I've found 5/8th pipe in the house! The design of the valve seat was something entirely new to me. Subsequent investigation that this would be a job for my handy chem-lab cork hole-borers; a small rubber disc cut with No7 borer doing nicely (~6mm). So I took it to bits and threw the whole thing in the ultrasonic cleaner, first with alkaline cleaner and then with citric acid solution and eventually got it looking like a functioning device. Then smeared it all over with silicone grease.

I see that somebody has started a charity aimed specifically at pensioners who need plumbers - I really must get their number .

 

[armalites]

My mate lives on an estate in Berkshire that was built back copper prices were high I guess in 70s 80s. There is quite a bit of plastic that doesn't comform to modern standards. He said if you talk to the local old timers plumbing supplies place they can pinpoint what you are likely to have based on the estate and apparently they all vary.

I live in a old house that had all manner of different pipe. In emergencies I've bought the conversion pieces but the reality is if you have the time it's better to get it all out and replace so you aren't messing around in the future.

 

[DAPPH]

My mate lives on an estate in Berkshire that was built back copper prices were high I guess in 70s 80s. There is quite a bit of plastic that doesn't comform to modern standards. He said if you talk to the local old timers plumbing supplies place they can pinpoint what you are likely to have based on the estate and apparently they all vary.

I live in a old house that had all manner of different pipe. In emergencies I've bought the conversion pieces but the reality is if you have the time it's better to get it all out and replace so you aren't messing around in the future.

The cynic in me says, "Till like MK our glorious German friends changed over from stranded wires to solid conductors for fixed domestic wiring and are now hoping the EU will agree to change back to strands with crimped on ferrules at terminations because from an engineering standpoint it is better. Remember the madness of microbore 6 & 8 mm that silted up because there was not enough water movement and crap rads were being used (and still are)

 

[sako243]

Pipes to my boiler(s) are ~2 inch does that count? Admittedly not copper.

 

[gaz1]

yeah old pipes and fittings still exist in many houses

you can still buy the old fittings or the adaptions down to 15mm sometimes a compression fitting is far easier to use

 

[Cobbler]

Is it 1/2” of 15mm copper tube that’s frozen & expanded?

 

[Ross365]

Is it 1/2” of 15mm copper tube that’s frozen & expanded?

Is that possible??? It's got good insulation on it. At one point I thought I would go buy a new ballcock, but the unusual bulkhead fitting convinced me to take the time to refurbish the old one, and that now seems fine after my efforts on it.

 

[Onoff]

3/4" nominal bore, single pipe copper pipe system here downstairs. All swept tees on the rads.

 

[OJCar]

In answer to the title; Me.

It is still used by Air Con Industry.
BES do fittings etc
https://www.bes.co.uk/air-conditioning/fittings/copper-fittings/?facet_size=25157

 

[JimmyS]

We've got 8mm microbore old imperial 15 and 22mm copper, plus more modern copper, some hep that the mice have been at and some PEX. And a bit of lead outside that's started leaking. No 5/8 but I think I have a cutting in the garage if you need a bit- as its a refrigerant pipe size, the fridge pipe sizes are still imperial.

 

[DAPPH]

Is that possible??? It's got good insulation on it. At one point I thought I would go buy a new ballcock, but the unusual bulkhead fitting convinced me to take the time to refurbish the old one, and that now seems fine after my efforts on it.

There is an electric / frequency pulsing device that can be fitted to water pipes, it has two aerials wrapped in opposite direction either side of the unit. I got mine about 22 years ago when we lived in lime ridden East Anglia it worked brilliantly. I brought it with me when we came to Wales 17 years ago .found we have very softwater her so it was relegated for use on our newly constructed pond to stop pond weed forming but it was never a problem .
In the bungalow in East Anglia it eventually cleaned up all the incoming water lime scale problem. It's the WK1 in the middle

 

[Ross365]

We have a water softener; one of the ones that works by chemistry using ion exchange resin and salt water. I've no idea at all how wrapping a strand of wire around a copper pipe works.

 

[DAPPH]

IIRC it aligns charged molecules of calcium & magnesium in the water & binds them together, so they don't stick to the pipes & fittings.

This link has a fair explanation. https://www.eddy.uk.com/Electronic-Descaler/Can-a-Limescale-Reducer-Really-Work.php

 

[Morris]

Not sure I would take the word of some of someone trying to sell it to me...

 

[Morris]

Test of a magnetic device for the amelioration of scale formation at Treatment Facility D (Technical Report) | OSTI.GOV

A commercial device (Descal-A-Matic{reg_sign}, Norfolk, VA) designed to treat water by means of a magnetic field has been evaluated for its effect on the formation of calcite scale at LLNL Treatment Facility D. At this facility, volatile organic contaminants (VOCs) are removed by air stripping...

www.osti.gov

I would however be inclined to believe a proper laboratory.

 

[Ross365]

Calcium and magnesium ions both have positive charges so will repel each rather than stick together. The established systems work on the basis that they "suck out" the calcium (which has low solubility in water) and replace it with sodium (which is highly soluble). This consumes salt (to provide the sodium) and flushes calcium-laden water down the drains. I think I bought my first one in the mid-80's when I relocated from the North down to Oxfordshire.

At various times, there have been electronic devices you could add to your car which somehow affect the molecules of petrol going in to the engine of your car, and which (claim) to miraculously make it more efficient. No company fits them as standard OEM.

 

[hunter27]

Struggled with pipe in residential caravans that has frozen in the past expanding the pipe slightly, resorted to using a socket former in the end of the pipe and soldering in a bit of new pipe to connect up to.

 

[DAPPH]

Test of a magnetic device for the amelioration of scale formation at Treatment Facility D (Technical Report) | OSTI.GOV

A commercial device (Descal-A-Matic{reg_sign}, Norfolk, VA) designed to treat water by means of a magnetic field has been evaluated for its effect on the formation of calcite scale at LLNL Treatment Facility D. At this facility, volatile organic contaminants (VOCs) are removed by air stripping...

www.osti.gov

I would however be inclined to believe a proper laboratory.

You're trying to compare chalk & cheese methinks kind Sir,
They are two entirely different methods the one you post of is I offer a static magnetic field, the one I put up is a changing electrical frequency field , not sure if it's alternatively opposites or different frequencies on both at the same time or even amplitude & wave form on the aerials.
I'm heartened to realise that if it was utter rubbish at around £145 to £500 or greater the plumbing industry would be snowed under with county court claims and trading standards prosecutions if they didn't work .

 

[Guineafowl]

it aligns charged molecules of calcium & magnesium in the water & binds them together, so they don't stick to the pipes & fittings.

Not getting at you, but the claim itself: binding positively charged ions, (to form calcium magnesite?) is possible in a star, or a tokamak, but not in the home.

The electronic scale reducers are a good scam product: easy to DIY fit, and priced so they’re worth a go, but not worth suing over. There are plenty of other similar scam devices, eg electrical energy savers (a capacitor and LED), and the more recent USB stick anti-5G force fields that continue to evade TS and the County Courts.

 

[Wedg1e]

My mother's place (built 1938) still has a lead incomer for the water (and gas) and imperial-sized pipes about the place. The central heating is a late 60's single-pipe system (woefully inefficient) and I think some of the pipes are 1/2", not 15mm.
I fitted a new header tank for the DHW as the galvanized one corroded through and had to use metric/ imperial adapters on the pipes, earlier this year.