Took on my first copper soldering job today -- replacing my bath tub faucet PBV. I practiced with some 1/2" pipe/fittings and got the technique down. What I didn't anticipate was the problems I'd have making the brass to copper connections. Now that I've dug through the forum threads, I see that this is not uncommon.
I finally got all this done, cut in the new tree to the existing hot/cold supply, turned on the water to the house, and, by some miracle, no leaks. I was pleasantly surprised. However, now I'm nervous that I might not have done such a great job on some of the brass/copper joints. Maybe I didn't get the full capillary action to suck the solder into the joint, and maybe it's just ponded up around the lip of the fitting. I was fairly careful about cleaning, flux, and heating the fitting (not the pipe), and I'm confident in the copper-copper joints. It was just so bloody difficult to get the brass hot and I may have been forcing the solder a bit too close the flame to get it to melt.
Question is -- should I be comfortable that if I don't have leaks now, I won't have them in 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 years? In other words, are leaks always evident immediately?
I finally got all this done, cut in the new tree to the existing hot/cold supply, turned on the water to the house, and, by some miracle, no leaks. I was pleasantly surprised. However, now I'm nervous that I might not have done such a great job on some of the brass/copper joints. Maybe I didn't get the full capillary action to suck the solder into the joint, and maybe it's just ponded up around the lip of the fitting. I was fairly careful about cleaning, flux, and heating the fitting (not the pipe), and I'm confident in the copper-copper joints. It was just so bloody difficult to get the brass hot and I may have been forcing the solder a bit too close the flame to get it to melt.
Question is -- should I be comfortable that if I don't have leaks now, I won't have them in 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 years? In other words, are leaks always evident immediately?