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The world of pipe fittings

naich.net

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Re: The world of pipe fittings

#91

Post by throw0101c »

agsamek wrote: post #66

This article doesn't touch much about why plumbing is hard. I'm from Poland so I'm not only IT but also a plumber ;) Plumbing is hard because it is not forgiving. It's as binary as IT except you can learn the outcome with some delay, once you learnt about a damage caused by a leak. Either you do a pressure tests right or repair can be expensive. And bugfixing is always tricky. Water also goes down whether you like it…

> This article doesn't touch much about why plumbing is hard. I'm from Poland so I'm not only IT but also a plumber ;)

I'm guessing that is a reference to Omid Djalili sketches about Polish plumbers:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K85ZtXnMxbM

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mjzu0Runo&t=1m

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FM9Ps6cW9U

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omid_Djalili

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#92

Post by bmalicoat »

I was hoping this was going to be written by Leslie Claret.

https://www.lgclaret.com/

"Hey, let me walk you through our Donnelly nut spacing and crack system rim-riding grip configuration. Using a field of half-C sprats, and brass-fitted nickel slits, our bracketed caps and splay-flexed brace columns vent dampers to dampening hatch depths of one-half meter from the damper crown to the spurve plinths. How? Well, we bolster twelve husked nuts to each girdle-jerry. While flex tandems press a task apparatus of ten vertically composited patch-hamplers. Then, pin flam-fastened pan traps at both maiden-apexes of the jim-joist."

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#93

Post by georgeoliver »

agsamek wrote: post #66

This article doesn't touch much about why plumbing is hard. I'm from Poland so I'm not only IT but also a plumber ;) Plumbing is hard because it is not forgiving. It's as binary as IT except you can learn the outcome with some delay, once you learnt about a damage caused by a leak. Either you do a pressure tests right or repair can be expensive. And bugfixing is always tricky. Water also goes down whether you like it…

I had a funny experience a week ago. One night working on a hobby web project it took me three or four hours to debug something, I finally got to bed around midnight thinking "boy, programming is hard".

The next day at work we had to find a broken heat wire in a tiled bathroom floor, running 1000 volts through the wires to try to fuse the broken wire, then heating the floor up and searching with heat-sensitive paper overlays for the likely broken spot, then breaking the tile with a hammer and digging the wire out of the mortar bed. After we found it I thought, "I'd rather hunt software bugs".

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#94

Post by mindslight »

jcims wrote: post #78
hilbert42 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You need about 1.5 wraps of PTFE tape to seal a fitting. Any more is wasteful and asking for leaks" I would have thought this obvious and it's essentially my experience (and I'm definitely not a plumber). However, I've found that more PTFE tape is needed on old or worn fittings or on ones that have damaged or badly cut threads—or when mating same sized pipes/fittings but each with different threads (yes, that's a de…

>Of course—not being plumber—it often happens that when I urgently need PTFE tape I cannot find it Ahh, young padawan, the way of the elder is to buy a roll every time you have a project to do until you have achieved saturation...where there is a lightly used roll of teflon tape in every drawer and on every surface of your workshop and garage.

That's only the way of the middle-aged. If you do it with just PTFE tape you'll be fine, but if you do it with all similar sundries, then you'll be oversaturated and once again won't be able to find anything without pawing through piles.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#95

Post by Scoundreller »

skeptical_dog wrote: post #30
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To really hold it together, the plumber would pour molten lead on top of the oakum. This is pretty interesting, because plumbers are called 'lead-pourers' (loodgieters) in Dutch, and I had always wondered why.

The english word, too, is derived from the Latin for lead: plumbum.

It’s not called Pb for nothing!

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#96

Post by lajosbacs »

throw0101c wrote: post #91
agsamek wrote: post #66

This article doesn't touch much about why plumbing is hard. I'm from Poland so I'm not only IT but also a plumber ;) Plumbing is hard because it is not forgiving. It's as binary as IT except you can learn the outcome with some delay, once you learnt about a damage caused by a leak. Either you do a pressure tests right or repair can be expensive. And bugfixing is always tricky. Water also goes down whether you like it…

> This article doesn't touch much about why plumbing is hard. I'm from Poland so I'm not only IT but also a plumber ;) I'm guessing that is a reference to Omid Djalili sketches about Polish plumbers: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K85ZtXnMxbM * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mjzu0Runo&t=1m * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FM9Ps6cW9U * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omid_Djalili

It's a stereotype across the whole Europe, even Poland takes advantage of it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_plumber#/media/File:Pol...

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#98

Post by Scoundreller »

radlad wrote: post #49
cmclaughlin wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like PEX, but I know opinions vary What’s not to like about PEX?

I believe it's less durable than alternatives.

There’s definitely a “right” way and a “wrong” way to do it.

Having each fixture connection being a “home run” without any fittings between source and destination really reduces a lot of vulnerabilities. Having a central manifold that lets you easily turn off any tap is nice too.

A condo building I lived in did something wrong (I suspect) either a bad batch of PEX, or more likely, a batch that sat in the sun for a while, leading to multiple failures of hot water return lines in few years that were a mystery to pin down.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#99

Post by sokoloff »

jcims wrote: post #78
hilbert42 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You need about 1.5 wraps of PTFE tape to seal a fitting. Any more is wasteful and asking for leaks" I would have thought this obvious and it's essentially my experience (and I'm definitely not a plumber). However, I've found that more PTFE tape is needed on old or worn fittings or on ones that have damaged or badly cut threads—or when mating same sized pipes/fittings but each with different threads (yes, that's a de…

>Of course—not being plumber—it often happens that when I urgently need PTFE tape I cannot find it Ahh, young padawan, the way of the elder is to buy a roll every time you have a project to do until you have achieved saturation...where there is a lightly used roll of teflon tape in every drawer and on every surface of your workshop and garage.

I unlocked an uncommon DIY achievement last month: I finished an entire 119 foot roll of PTFE tape.

Re: The world of pipe fittings

#100

Post by D13Fd »

mindslight wrote: post #52
cmclaughlin wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like PEX, but I know opinions vary What’s not to like about PEX?

Thinking about a system a half-step up from hose clamps holding 100psi of pressure, which if it pulls apart will rapidly release hundreds of gallons of water does not inspire confidence. And since the house is already plumbed with copper and I know how to sweat joints, I might as well continue that. I'm about to use PEX for the first time on my hydronic heating system, which is only ~20psi and limited volume (autofil…

I haven’t seen 100 psi in household applications
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