removing water from pipes with a wet vac

[Serval]

im of understanding that lots of you use wet vacs to remove the last bits of water from pipe work after draining a system, in order to carry out soldering or any other jobs without any issues from residual water remaining in the system.


Ive not used a wet vac before but I think one might come in handy to carry out this task when I renovate a couple of bathrooms in my house soon.


The question I have is do you need to have a tight seal between the vacum pipe and the copper pipe that that you intend to suck the water out of?


Im guessing the end of the vacuum tub must be significantly bigger than the outside diameter of the 15 or 10mm copper pipe so Im wondering how you achieve enough suction to remove the water…. do you need improvise some kind of seal to get a good seal the gap between the differing pipe sizes?


Or do wet vacs come with adapters to fit varying copper pipe sizes?


Thanks in advance for the replies

 

[gmartine]

Suck it and see, if not make a seal with hand.

 

[Stigster]

+1 for the hand. I just put the end of the vac over the pipe I want to empty and seal the gaps with my hand wrapped around it. It doesn't make a perfect seal but more than good enough to pull the water out the pipework.

 

[Riley]

You and your hand

 

[ShaunCorbs]

i use a piece of silicon tube and a tray

 

[townfanjon]

From what I understand, you do not make a seal on whatever pipe you are clearing , a vac wants a mix of air and water .

 

[DGT plumbing]

Hand or a rag if I'm walking away from it.

 

[Allgoode]

Missus says i should use my hand but don't know what she's on about....................

 

[Kevin M]

Get one you won't regret it. If you can have two open ends on a pipe run makes it easier for clearing pipework. Its got me out of trouble lots of times, just use your hand to create the seal around pipe and nozzle.

 

[Last Plumber]

I use manometer tube and a tray. Push pipe in tube and blow. I think that’s what Shaun means too?

 

[Serval]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Need a general vac for other jobs so might aswell make it a wet n dry then.