teatreeposter
New Member
Our house has the main water line (3/4" copper) coming into the basement about 18" off the ground, then immediately turns vertical (almost flat against the wall) and goes up to the ceiling. In just the first 18" of that vertical section, there's a valve, then a spigot, then a valve, then the water meter on a loop that juts out horizontally, then another valve, then the check valve, then finally back to copper tube.
Since we bought the house, this stack of crusty, corroded old valves has had a slow leak or two. The house came with a bucket underneath the stack to catch the drips, which we empty once a month or so. I replaced all the copper tubing in the house with PEX, except for this initial section and the part from here to the water heater and just after it.
Well tonight, a new, faster leak showed up, I think coming from the check valve. I've tried previously to tighten the threaded connections between the various valves/loops/etc, but I always feel like the whole thing could crumble if I torque it too much, or just look at it the wrong way. So given the urgency of the new leak, and the fact that I couldn't get a plumber to come out on New Year's Eve, I figured I'd bite the bullet and cut out the whole mess and replace it with PEX.
The bottom-most valve *almost* closes fully, and after that and the spigot there's a decent ~6" length of copper tubing, so that's where I cut. Everything went fine until it came to putting the water meter back inline (Sensus SR II). It has threaded connectors, but they're not tapered; they're compression fittings. And the meter says "5/8" in a few places, including right next to the ports, but that's actually the ID of the inlet/outlet; the OD (thread diameter) is 1.25".
Here's the problem: I've been searching all over (Home Depot, Lowe's, SupplyHouse) and can't for the life of me find any kind of adapter/connector with 1.25" compression fittings. The meter was previously installed on a copper tube loop, where the ends of the tube were flanged out (like a tailpiece? I think that's the term...) into a flat surface, so a washer could be compressed between them and the flat ports on the meter. The previous nuts and washers all seem fine, so even if I could just find a 5/8" copper tube with a flanged end (a copper tailpiece?) that would be great, but I haven't been able to find one. I feel like I must be missing something here...
Thanks for any advice on this.
Since we bought the house, this stack of crusty, corroded old valves has had a slow leak or two. The house came with a bucket underneath the stack to catch the drips, which we empty once a month or so. I replaced all the copper tubing in the house with PEX, except for this initial section and the part from here to the water heater and just after it.
Well tonight, a new, faster leak showed up, I think coming from the check valve. I've tried previously to tighten the threaded connections between the various valves/loops/etc, but I always feel like the whole thing could crumble if I torque it too much, or just look at it the wrong way. So given the urgency of the new leak, and the fact that I couldn't get a plumber to come out on New Year's Eve, I figured I'd bite the bullet and cut out the whole mess and replace it with PEX.
The bottom-most valve *almost* closes fully, and after that and the spigot there's a decent ~6" length of copper tubing, so that's where I cut. Everything went fine until it came to putting the water meter back inline (Sensus SR II). It has threaded connectors, but they're not tapered; they're compression fittings. And the meter says "5/8" in a few places, including right next to the ports, but that's actually the ID of the inlet/outlet; the OD (thread diameter) is 1.25".
Here's the problem: I've been searching all over (Home Depot, Lowe's, SupplyHouse) and can't for the life of me find any kind of adapter/connector with 1.25" compression fittings. The meter was previously installed on a copper tube loop, where the ends of the tube were flanged out (like a tailpiece? I think that's the term...) into a flat surface, so a washer could be compressed between them and the flat ports on the meter. The previous nuts and washers all seem fine, so even if I could just find a 5/8" copper tube with a flanged end (a copper tailpiece?) that would be great, but I haven't been able to find one. I feel like I must be missing something here...
Thanks for any advice on this.
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