Minimum 'collar' for sweating pipe

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jgold47

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I'm working up a loop for a water filter and need to sweat copper joints between a bunch of different types of connections. Between each (Valve, Union, Male Thread) I've got a short piece of pipe to join the sections. Unfortunatley, I've got very little room to work with, so I need the copper lengths to be minimal. My question is how much 'collar' do I really need to sweat pipes between two fittings? 1/2" 1/4" less?
 

Cacher_Chick

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The problem I have run into is if sweating a valve or union, it will require more heat than can be applied to it before burning the flux or solder out of the adjacent lighter weight fitting.
 

hj

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You need the full "collar", and if you do the assembly correctly you can do it that way. A short "collar, or insert" is ALWAYS a weak joint and can separate at some future time. A good plumber does not have a problem soldering a valve next to a fitting and does NOT "burn" the flux doing it.
 

Dj2

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Doing it correctly, as hj mentioned, is critical. Otherwise you are inviting future leaks. If you find it necessary to re-do all connections with new components - do so
 
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