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Author:
george 7941 (Canada)
Bending hard-drawn pipe is prohibited in our plumbing code and yet I come across it all the time.
A couple of days ago I was installing a shower valve and did not have soft tubing with me, so I went ahead and heated up the type L 1/2 in pipe and bent it slightly to make the hot water inlet connection. I have never come across pipe failures where it has been bent without kinking.
Heating up the pipe does draw its temper, but do you not end up with soft copper tubing? Will you absolutely not bend pipe under any circumstances?
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Author:
shacko (MD)
Even though it was a no-no I and others have bent it for years by heating, the only thing I see wrong is not flushing it out when you're done; heat creates a slag type of deposit on the inside.
"If all else fails, read the directions"
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Author:
packy (MA)
well, if it's a code violation to bend tubing, then there must be millions of violations with chrome risers for toilets and lavs.
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Author:
HytechPlumber (LA)
Most of us have bent hard drawn piping at one time or another. The copper "MUST" be heated up before bending. Copper has seams in it and if you should happen to bend it on the seam it may not leak during testing but may blow out during operating pressure.
In the A/C industry copper is bent all the time although it is mostly soft drawn that is used.
I have already seen galvanized piping heated up and bent when the situation may have called for it.
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Author:
Scott the Plumber (PA)
Packy, different type of copper, different method of bending.
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Author:
LemonPlumber (FL)
no way dude.unless I want to.LOL.I have done it many times.never near a fitting.
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Author:
m & m (MD)
Just about all of my copper shower risers have to be bent because of the offset between the valve and the fact that I like the earred ell just behind the sheetrock.
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Author:
Shoemaker2 (MA)
And with a wheeler bender you need not heat it.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
Our inspectors do not like soft copper anywhere except as it comes out of the floor/slab. They want it transitioned to hard copper immediately. And why would you need soft copper anyway?
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Author:
hj (AZ)
They are not annealed copper tubing pieces. If they were, you would not bend them with your hands without kinking them.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
Copper is drawn, not rolled, so there is no seam. I never heated galvanized pipe to bend it.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
I thought that was why they made regular and street 45's.
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Author:
PBwrencher (WI)
Your right, the bending of hard-drawn L copper pipe is not permitted by any plumbing code that I know of.
About 40 years ago in Glendale Heights, Illinois on a single family housing project we were running low on 1/2" copper 90's and so we thought of using electrical 1/2" conduit benders to make-up the copper pipe rizers from the basement for the kitchen sinks supplies on a few of them.
The bending of copper pipes with the benders worked better then I ever expected.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
As long as you keep the bender in contact with the tubing it works, but if you even let it move away a little bit, the tubing will kink. It also works better with type "L" than "M".
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Author:
sum (FL)
so I should have borrowed a tube bender to bend my soft copper pipes instead of using my hand and kinking it.
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Author:
LemonPlumber (FL)
Sum.It is skill or practice you lack.as said the benders only work if used correctly.on the soft copper you are speaking of age worked against you and the lack of experience did the rest.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
Well, unless you could find someone with "geared bender", you would not have had enough leverage to do it any way.
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Author:
SwimRunPlumb (MI)
We used to make all of our copper "drops" with soft copper. Not anymore, due to the cost of copper and the fact that everyone uses pex now.
It is all about how you were taught I guess. My thinking is why would you NOT use soft copper. Cost I guess, but it is much easier, faster and safer (get the drop away from the joist when soldering) to use soft. Yes, I always run my copper perfectly straight through the bays, but it is nice to be able to bend it perpendicular with the joist. Yeah, I know, it may only take one or two more fittings, but I will be done while you are still cutting the extra pieces of copper.
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Author:
dlh (TX)
and your work will look like crap.
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Author:
SwimRunPlumb (MI)
The two more elbows you use do not make it a piece of art work. I have always been told how nice of a job I do. I have never been told, "that looks like crap because you bent that pipe coming down from the floor a little bit".
You have been brainwashed.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
Yeah, but we won't have to spend time straightening the copper before we install it.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
He was not referring to the copper coming out of the floor, he meant the horizontal runs in the basement.
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Author:
SwimRunPlumb (MI)
Why would my horizontal runs look like crap? Those are hard copper, straight, square and level.
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Author:
dlh (TX)
it will still look like crap to me as my work is like a piece of art!
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Author:
Phyllis (NY)
Could you be more specific about your technique? What do you use to heat the tube and for how long? What is the maximum bend then possible? Will the annealed portion be strong enough to resist bending from 10-15 pounds of external force?
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