why did the plumber do this?

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trapman

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In the process of redo on downstairs bathroom of my house which was built in 1949.
When I removed the old plaster/drywall I found the copper pipe to the shower head
had this strange run in it. Can someone tell me the purpose?

Thanks
Dave
 

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RRW

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Since copper has a pretty high coefficient of expansion I bet it is there to keep the pipe from pushing the shower head up when it is hot.
 

Jimbo

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He needed an offset and didn't have any 45's\

There was something in the way, on one side of the wall or another, at the time. Recessed soap dish?
 

JohnfrWhipple

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He didn't have two couplings but he had 4 90's.......and some cold beer waiting at home.


LOL - So true. I have seen this done with double 45's when no coupling is on site.

Nice Call.

I did make a similar sculpture years ago when my Step Dad was teaching me to solder. Could just be art.

Maybe they wanted lower water pressure???
 

hj

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someone told him they were going to put a soap dish in the wall at that point so he had to offset around it. Expansion is not even close to being a factor in a short shower riser, and if he had had a leak it would have been faster to take the elbow loose than go to that amount of work.
 

trapman

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Thanks for the various comments. I guess I like the "had four 90's and no couplings and cold beer waiting" as best answer.

Dave
 

hj

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quote; I guess I like the "had four 90's and no couplings and cold beer waiting" as best answer.

Not really, because there was no reason WHY he would have needed ANOTHER coupling since he already has one by the valve, and if the "four 90s" was the reason, he could have made less of an offset and a shorter one.
 

Hackney plumbing

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quote; I guess I like the "had four 90's and no couplings and cold beer waiting" as best answer.

Not really, because there was no reason WHY he would have needed ANOTHER coupling since he already has one by the valve, and if the "four 90s" was the reason, he could have made less of an offset and a shorter one.

Yeah well we are both guessing unless you did the work. I decided to have a sense of humor.
 

hj

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quote; I decided to have a sense of humor.

In that case, maybe he thought there was too much pressure and decided to create some additional restriction to the flow, especially if he used CPVC or PEX down to the spout. Sort of like the technician in the computer room at the university I used to work at. She had a lamp which was too bright so she plugged it into a long extension cord then would the cord into a coil and stuck it in a drawer, figuring if the electricity had to travel farther it would be weaker.
 

Smooky

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In the back side of the wall you can see there is a plywood repair panel behind the shower valve and this section of pipe fittings. My thought is at some point the valve was changed and the copper pipe had to be cut. A new valve was installed and it was easier to put the pipes back together using two 90’s on the straight section of pipe and then using the last two 90’s to make a “U” and sweat it all back together.

Terry mentioned this in a post a week or so ago “use four 90's
that way the last piece that glues in is like a U."
 
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