Replace the Angle Stop and Supply Line, galvanized pipe nipple

[Terry]

Sometimes we come across angle stops that were installed with galvanized pipe nipples. The angle stops are made of brass, and the steel where it meets the brass can corrode. In this example, the piping in the wall was copper with drop ear brass adapters for use with pipe nipples. The exposed shutoff was leaking and the pipe was alost rusted through where it met the brass shutoff.

I was able to spin this out using a pipe wrench. Yes, one of the rare times that I use one. Not like in the movies and television where plumbers use a pipe wrench to comb their hair and to spread butter on toast.

I carry lead free brass nipples on the van, and I installed a nice new Dahl valve with new supply line. My rule of them is that if a supply line comes off, it gets tossed.

The home was a 1920's home that had been repiped in the 60's.
I worked with a guy once that loved using steel nipples on copper pipes. I used to ask him why?
Service calls down the road. Well I guess! After 50 years those pipe nipples were almost totally closed off.

 

[CountryBumkin]

Did all of the galvanized pipe come out cleanly? It looks like there is some meat missing from the threads at the end.
Do you like to run a pipe tap in the fitting to clean things up a little in a job like this one?

That would have been a bitch if that nipple broke off in the wall. Do you warn the HO about that possibility (the additional repair cost) - or just plan to eat the cost if it happens?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Terry]

"CountryBumkin, post: 494038, member: 35740"]Did all of the galvanized pipe come out cleanly? It looks like there is some meat missing from the threads at the end.
Do you like to run a pipe tap in the fitting to clean things up a little in a job like this one?

In this case there was a brass drop ear connected to copper in the wall. I was able to clean that up. Yes, you can see how the threads dissolve over time.

That would have been a bitch if that nipple broke off in the wall. Do you warn the HO about that possibility (the additional repair cost) - or just plan to eat the cost if it happens?

They had been warned that my price was based on work outside the wall. That if things broke beyond that, we were prepared to help them spend some money.
Years ago, I was doing something similar in Medina on an old Summer cabin, very old. Pipes kept breaking off due to age. I was finally able to find a fitting that stayed intact. That homeowner in Medina was complaining that I was stretching the job. What she really needed was a complete repipe. Sometimes patching old pipe is a losing battle. Yesterday was different. The pipe had been repiped in the 60's, and it was just the pipes to the shutoffs that were the issue.

 

[Plumber69]

Lots of flushometers in town where installed with galvanized nipples.