Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

[Phil]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Annoying drip from new new basin waste?

Wrap PTFE around the thread on the brass waste and then fit the flat washer or coned basin mate then tighten the nut. Nothing worse than that slow teardrop spiraling down the thread just when you thought you've finished.

Since I've used PTFE I've not had a single leak.

 

[WaterTight]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I've a couple of tips for anyone like me who satisfies the two conditions of owning an expensive freezing machine and also being an idiot.

1) If working on rads/primary pipes remember to tell the customer that the heating must be cold by the time you arrive.

2) When you arrive remember to check the heating is not due to come on.

I did neither of these on a job earlier and upon swapping a rad and filling it up put my tools away and then came back amazed to find it was now hot. Lu-cky.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Remember to regularly sharpen the blades on your plastic pipe cutters to ensure a clean and easy cut.

 

[southcoastboile]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

if you get an iscolation valve leak from the spindle after turning it off to drain down a boiler drain down completely, layer it with flux and solder around the spindle, have done this a few times, you cant turn the valve back off but atleast it stops the leak untill you can gt hold of a new valve which can sometimes be a long wait

 

[Mr leaky]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

if you tighten a compression fitting onto a pipe and realize you have made a mistake you can remove olives with a flat file basically you tap the olive with the file and rotate the pipe slowly the olive can then be removed they can then be re-used some people say they leak but personally i have had no problems there are a few other tips on u tube that i have found the link is bellow

TheTomplum's Channel - YouTube

another thing i do is i write down faults in a small book so i can go back to it in the future it helps me remember things i would otherwise forget such as what ohm readings you should get from certain components, formulas and rules

 

[Guest123]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

This isn't really a plumbing tip but a matter of courtesy that my customers really appreciate. When working on a bathroom, the smells from open soil pipes. wastes and every day materials like flux, silicone etc can be very off putting, especially as it's someones home. I now always put a air freshener in the stripped out bathroom and the one that squirts out a scent on a timer.

 

[Steve @ TheHeatingHub]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

always keep half a length of imperial in ya van

 

[dontknowitall]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I find a couple of sheets of newspaper stops the smells and also soaks up the extra drips of water.

 

[fuzzy]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

use the correct tool for the job

 

[GQuigley67]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

buy one of those LED head lights they are the muts nuts for under floors and other confined spaces