Irish and English plumb fittings.

awishawash

Hi all,
Well I nearly tore my hair out this afternoon when I realised that I'd been sold a tap out in that hole b +Q, with copper tails that do not fit any half inch irish fittings I have. Is this an english fitting? 15mm? Is there any way to join the two with an adapter or reducer or something? I went to chadwicks plumbing and the bloke just gave me a compression joint 15mm to 15mm. When I got home I realised this was useless and could now throttle him.
What do I need!!! I'm using 1/2"qualpex and push fit tectite.

Corkey123

I far as I know there are no tectite fittiings that will do this job, you will have to go down the compression route. Irish fitting as in mm while english still use inches.

Measure the fitting require, its most likely 12mm from the tail to 15mm. If so then its the standard reducer compression joint, chadwicks should have known this.

You will get one on these in Heat Merchants have a look on the website

rooferPete

Hi,

I believe the UK is still using imperial pipe and fittings, what may work for you is an "Acorn" plastic or "Yorkshire" solder fitting to add a piece of Irish copper to Qualpex may work with "Acorn".

I have used UK push fittings on Irish copper with no problems although the first time I was a bit concerned, so concerned that I did a test in the workshop before landing on the job with confidence.

Many Baxi and other UK central heating boilers have UK sized copper tails and they work ok so it should be easy enough to sort out.

.

CJhaughey

Acorn is true 15mm Qualpex (Irish) is 14.7mm Qualpex (Eng) is 15.2mm OD
It is a real nightmare, I have Swedish taps and they require True 15mm, Irish Qualpex will leak , the solution was to use Acorn Grey 1/2" pushed into the Qualpex push fittings.
It works and provides a good seal.
Acorn 1/2" will not work with 1/2" compression fittings.

awishawash

Harmony restored!
well its easy to learn when so many things go wrong!!
I think I just had no confidence in the joints I was doing so was relying on the quickfit stuff.
I measured up the pipes as best I could, outside diameter. They all seemed to be 15mm. When I originally pushed on the 15mm the capnut for the compression fitting was difficult to push up onto the tap tail, and then the qualpex 1/2" just kept falling out of the bottom, so I figured it was just wrong.( What I didnt realise is that when you tighten up the nuts it squeezes the olive ring tight onto the qualpex. )Then when that didnt work I tried pushing the copper tails onto a 1/2" flexi pipe, push fit. It wouldnt fit so I put 2+2 together and thought the tail sizing was this weird 'english' fitting.
So I've now put the tails into the 15mm compression fitting joining to a little 1/2" qualpex, joining to push fit flexi pipe, joining to qualpex, joining via push fit to the copper pipe from the cistern, using joint putty on all the compression fittings. Had to replace one tectite coupler as it was leaking.
Just wondering from experience, if its not leaking now, and doesnt get any bangs, what are my chances of survival?!
11:33pm, the missus can get ready to go out finally!
ps..is acorn just another type of piping?

CJhaughey

I would just leave a dark coloured tissue near the joins and keeo inspecting it for leaks in the next few days.
Acorn is grey and IMHO inferior to Qualpex which is 3 layers.
Joint putty? why don't you use PTFE tape?

flocker

Awishawash,
if you have 15mm tails you can use a 15mm (english) compression fitting and insert a ½" (irish) olive into one side of the compression fitting to get from english to irish.

Irish fitting as in mm while english still use inches.

Martin, its the other way round english fittings are in mm Irish are in Imperial (inches)

I have used UK push fittings on Irish copper with no problems although the first time I was a bit concerned, so concerned that I did a test in the workshop before landing on the job with confidence.

l wouldn't use any english pushfit fitting on anything other than english copper. There is a small difference in 15mm and ½" copper but in the larger sizes the bigger differences. Pressure testing is great advice but if a problem does occur later on the manufacturer will walk away if the fitting is not fitted as per their procedures or the correct pipe size.

Acorn 1/2" will not work with 1/2" compression fittings.

Irish Acorn (Hep2/0) does work with ½" compression fittings. English acorn wont. What makes it worse is that Acorn comes in two different shades of grey pipe. The darker grey is Irish the lighter is english. The fittings have two differences the Irish fittings have white nuts, and a grey body the rubber "O" ring is first then the grab ring, the english fitting are all grey and have the grab ring then the rubber "O" ring.

John Guest, another pushfit pipe and fitting manufacturer is introducing Irish pipe and fittings they are coloured all coloured white pipe and fitting. Guess what colour the english sized pipe and fittings are coloured .....yes it's white. The only difference is the printing on the side of the pipe :eek: and a different coloured internal washer. Useful or what.

tapest

Hi
Been there ,done that , etc
you get away with the following on 1/2 inch pipe only . Will not work on larger sizes. 1/2 anch compression fitting with one irish and one english olive. simple as that. Go to plumbers or builbers yard. The lads there come acress this daily. they'll sort you out. No need even for jointing compound. Result guaranteed 100 percent. OK ??
t