17mm pipe hell: Advice needed on weird connection under bath

[pipehell]

Hello there!

Please help me, I think i am in pipe hell :frown2: or maybe just pipe purgatory for now. Long story short i ended up having to pull my poor bathroom apart when a pipe under the basin failed... only to find another very slow leak in a hot water pipe hidden under my bath.

I've shown it to two plumbers who are both perplexed by it... the problem apparently being that it's a 17mm pipe which appears to be connected (in a rather bodged-about manner?) to a 15mm pipe. I've been lead to believe that 17mm pipes are rarer than hens teeth (my house was built in the 30's so maybe it was a weird 30's thing...?) My plumber says that it is so close to the tee that it will be impossible to solder without melting and is suggesting that we might have to follow it round as far as we can and may need to be prepared to pull up walls and floors :bigcry:

Surely there must be another way? Do i need to find some kind of blacksmith to make me a bit of pipe!!?? I've been googling as much as i possibly can and Phillmac's Universal Transition couplings seem like they could possibly offer a solution but the leak seems so close to the tee i'm not sure how it they would work in practice?

Pictures below - any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[gassafe]

Iv never heard of 17mm pipe... Just looks like a bodget joint with 15 either side to me?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

looks like 15mm either side of the socket so just cut it out and replace the lot

 

[rpm]

Welcome to the forum pipehell. Would start with a hand held wire brush to see exactly what you`ve got there myself. Do you own or can you borrow a pair of outside callipers to accurately measure the pipes.

 

[gassafe]

The pipe all looks the same age... Both side of the joint, there is also a 15mm polyplumb push fit joint on the left hand side! I wouldn't risk a push fit on pipework that old as it could be imperial & pop off when your asleep!

I would just cut into it, seems your worrying about a problem that might not even exist...

 

[Unregistered]

Thank you all for your responses! Unfortunately rpm I don’t know anyone who has callipers but i’ve done my best with string/paper/tape measure and i’m certain that the pipe on the left of the image is 15mm and the pipe on the right is 17mm. Shaun i think you’re right - on closer inspection (it’s in a really difficult spot to actually get a good look at - i’ve attached a better lit photo below) it looks as though the pipe on the left passes through the socket and comes out and has then has been joined in some way to the 17mm pipe. Maybe i can just cut and replace this, but how do i then connect it to the 17mm pipe (would one of these work? Product detail | Philmac)

gassafe - what do you mean by a “push fit”? i don’t like the idea of anything popping anywhere while i’m asleep :tongue3:

better photo here (sorry i couldn't figure out how to embed this in my reply)

 

[jtsplumbing]

Why not just un-solder fitting pull it apart, clean it up and re-solder, bit on the right looks like a 22/15 reducer ??

 

[pipehell]

hmm reading the Philmac small print it says it's "rated to 12.5 bar (180psi) at 23 °C" it doesn't explicitly say "don't use for hot water pipes" but should i assume thats what it means? (or do they just say that to cover themselves?) does anyone know of any other adjustable-width compression fittings?

 

[jtsplumbing]

But looking at photo it's just dripping from end of Tee , take it apart , clean up pipe & fitting or use new Tee and re-solder, other option remove dripping tee and replace with compression tee,

 

[jonnyswamp]

Looks to me like a 22/15 reducer used as some sort of socket, with a very poor joint on the 22mm side ( 15mm pipe inside 22mm and a load of stick solder)
If the pipe on the right of the 22/15 fitting is copper use an expander to make a joint, then just renew the tee etc
Shouldn't matter if the pipe is a bit bigger (if indeed it is) as the expander will make a 15mm socket
If both your plumbers can't do it, find an older plumber :wheelchair:

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Looks to me like a 22/15 reducer used as some sort of socket, with a very poor joint on the 22mm side ( 15mm pipe inside 22mm and a load of stick solder)
If the pipe on the right of the 22/15 fitting is copper use an expander to make a joint, then just renew the tee etc
Shouldn't matter if the pipe is a bit bigger (if indeed it is) as the expander will make a 15mm socket
If both your plumbers can't do it, find an older plumber :wheelchair:

My thoughts about the reducer too, quoting the old orange juice song " rip it up and start again" :carolers:

 

[AWheating]

Standard Compression Fittings - Plumbing World

you can get 16mm and 18mm compression fittings ( x15mm couplers), good merchants will stock 16x15 couplers, 18mm you normally have to order in.