Pizza, pizza, Olives.... Brass, copper. Whats the difference.

[lambchop]

hi all

Please enlighten me. At work today, i ripped one of the lads today for buying cheap olives, copper not brass. He said theres no difference! Here was my moment to part with some hard earnt knowledge... Brass are better becos its a softer metal and gives a better seal on the compression fitting. He said no its not as I can squash a copper one between my fingers and not a brass one. My sarnie sagged at this comment, a moments silence followed by a bit of tumbleweed blowing by... and then back to work.


Who's right?

He also said that he also puts jet blue on a fibre washer, I said why as it needs water to expand to create a seal.

 

[diamondgas]

Copper is softer lambchop alas However regards the best seal? I'd prefer a brass ring

 

[secret squirrel]

Don't know about the best olives, I use whatever comes with the fitting or whatever I've got in my bag.

I always rap PTFE round the olive though.

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

Copper is better, copper is softer than brass and gives the better seal mate

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

No ptfe on the olive for me, just a bit of jet blue plus in the fitting where the pipe will come into contact with it

 

[scotty plumber]

I always throw away the copper rings as i find they do not compress on to the pipe as good as brass. As for the jet-blue i have never used it before so i do not know!

 

[hammers4spanner]

copper gives a better seal in general brass was generic heat bassed olive which would give a better seal once heat was applied.

old school fella told me this

 

[lambchop]

Im cutting a big slice of humble pie to go with my sarnies for tmrw, whats the opinion on putting jet blue on a fibre washer...?

 

[MattWeth]

Copper is softer and can seal better but is more prone to damage by gorilla tightening.

For this reason I prefer copper olives on plastic pipe. Doesn't really make any difference on copper pipe (in my humble experience anyway...)

I sometimes use a smear of LSX on the olive to fitting interface if it's a fitting that's going to be hard to get to after installation but not every time - sometimes my instinct just says it'd be a good idea

 

[Guest123]

Copper olives are softer and compress much easier and are the only ones to be used in a compression fitting on plastic pipe. Brass olives are stronger and expand and contract less and are highly suited to hot water and heating systems where pipework and fittings are subject to long periods of heat.
In my opinion, the special brass composite olives contained in Kuterlite 600 fittings are unbeatable, they never leak when used with these fittings.

 

[SimonJohns]

System3 +1

 

[johnnyplumb]

no real difference between cheap imported brass & copper olives, they both compress really easily. you can still buy heavy brass olives, but the price is the problem. you get 100 15mm imported olives for roughly £7, but it will cost you about the same for 10 heavy brass olives.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

:iagree: with system3

 

[Millsy 82]

Copper olives are imperial olives but fit on metric Brass olives are metric . I would rather use them on every thing as some of the brass olives that come with boilers you seem to have to hang off to get them tight enough to seal. I dont use jet blue or others except on the reducing olive things.

 

[AWheating]

If you look at most heating control valves, boiler valves they come with good brass olives because brass olives are more suitable for high heat aplications. I do like copper tho.

 

[JCplumb]

When I started up I found that brass olives tended to pass more than copper and needed to be gorrila'd. Was speaking to an old school plumber (45 years man and boy etc..) about it and he said always use copper olives, except on chrome pipe.
I took his advice and it has almost never let me down. Copper is softer so will form the seal easier imo.

 

[Bernie2]

One of the worst olives (Some makers called them compression rings not olives, if you called them olives you where thought a DIYer) where those in a Honeywell 3 port valve. They where brass and so hard you could not compress them it seemed without a pair of 28" Stilsons. It seemed regardless of how you tightened them the valve could just be spun around. The lads usually chucked the rings and used copper ones and a little jointing paste.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

brass with the white gunk in a yellow tub

 

[SimonG]

I prefer copper and not overtightened, always leave a bit for tomorrow

 

[Guest123]

While on this subject, last year I purchased a batch of budget isos with the little black handle. They all came with copper olives and not one in any of these valves would properly compress no matter what I did. On closer examination by comparing them to other copper olives from branded fittings, I found a tiny difference in size was the problem, in fact they were slightly larger than usual. Poorly machined foreign imports. Binned the lot of them and I'm glad that I checked them in the first place.

 

[mfgs]

I prefer copper olives, I find they seal better aslong as you dont over tighten them.

As for fibre washers, I dont put anything on them.

 

[Mike Jackson]

I prefer copper olives as I seem to get a better seal with them plus I can use them on lpg.

I generally chuck the fibre washers that come with tap connectors and fit nylon ones instead as they don't split like fibre ones do. I don't use sealing paste on fibre washers as it can end up in the terminal fitting and cause blockages.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Should never use any paste on a fibre washer as when the poor plumber turns up several years down the line they will have a mini nightmare trying to sort the mess you have made by using paste !!!

Drives me insane when i come across this

 

[WaterTight]

Should never use any paste on a fibre washer as when the poor plumber turns up several years down the line they will have a mini nightmare trying to sort the mess you have made by using paste !!!

Drives me insane when i come across this

You must be a certified loon by now then as it's extremely commonplace. I admit I've used a thin smear of LSX on fibre washers before where the connector was piped to be slightly unstraight and at possibly under a little strain to fill any microscopic gap that appeared. I don't do this anymore after thinking it might have been behind/contributing towards some failures I've been having with cheap ball-valves.

As to olives, didn't realise brass was more suitable to heating applications. Learn something new everyday on here. I usually chuck brass and use copper on 22mm and above (who am I kidding, I've yet to work with anything above 22mm) because I fear a bigger pipe and a brass olive is a recipe for a not-fully compressed olive. Not from experience, just a hunch.

 

[Guest123]

Fibre washers I stick in my gob and give them a good wetting before fitting so that they expand, not had a leak doing it this way. No need for paste, and for those muppets that use PTFE tape instead of a washer, I'd like to ..................