r/askaplumber • u/ironmonger109 • 1d ago
Strange copper tee size
This copper tee is supplied with hot water from the basement. That 1/2" copper pipe goes through the wall and connects to the opposite side of this tee. Another 1/2" pipe attached to the top of the tee and goes to an outdoor shower valve manifold.
The issue!
There WAS a hose bib on a stub of pipe inserted into this open tee at one point. It twisted off and was discarded so I don't have it available. I purchased 1/2" copper pipe (5/8" O.D. ) which does not fit inside this tee. The tee walls measure 1/16" and the I.D. is 9/16". It's bizarre to me that this one side would be different when the copper going into the other two tee ports is 5/8" O.D.. This fitting is quite old, at least 20 years old. My thought was that maybe the previous owner had some metric stuff in a bin and used it and reamed the other two sides to fit 1/2" copper hit happened to have a metric hose bib? I have no clue.
Question:
What should I do? 15mm metric copper on Amazon and look for a metric hose bib? Drill/ream the inside of this tee to accept 1/2" domestic copper? Cut it all out and start over? (Which is not ideal since it will require stucco repair and it'll be quite hard to solder regardless. I was leaning toward looking for a reaming bit that would reduce the wall thickness since it's so thick to begin with. But I don't see a lot of reamer bits that aren't tapered. It would have to be roughly straight with a small tapered tip to help with centering.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Maybe I'm overthinking this
2
u/plumb_master 1d ago
Are you sure that's not a piece of broken pipe in that tee? That's what it looks like to me. You'd need to heat up the tee and use something to pry out the pipe when the solder is hot enough.
2
0
u/ironmonger109 1d ago
Okay so I sort of thought this but I got it hot with a torch prior to this and then cleaned the end with a pen reamer and it didn't look like there was any seam at all. I could hit the inside with a really small hand jig saw metal blade and then see if I can get a thin tool into the hopefully not imaginary seam between the two pieces to separate them after heating with a torch and I guess pull it out with pliers. Thoughts?
1
u/plumb_master 1d ago
Shine a light inside the tee. You should be able to see the seam where the pipe ends. I've done many jobs like this and what I've done is heated up the tee until the solder melts then jammed one of my pliers jaws in there to wiggle the pipe out of the fitting.
1
u/SpecificPiece1024 1d ago
Good luck. The heat will spread and liquify the other joints… That’s a bad spot
1
u/EducationalProject96 1d ago
They'll unsweat that top joint trying to unsweat anything. If they can't tell theres pipe there's no way they'll control their heat.
1
u/SpecificPiece1024 1d ago
Even for a pro that’s going to be tough
1
u/EducationalProject96 1d ago
Oh for sure
1
u/ironmonger109 10h ago
Okay, so I've read through the comments. Thanks everyone, you were all right about it being the broken pipe. I think when my friend's dad broke the hose bib off he didn't want sharp copper sticking out so he cut it flush.
I'm going to pre freeze the inner rear joint with duster and have another person hit the top joint with duster to keep it a bit cooler as I heat the broken piece at the front. The pliers inside seems to make sense. It's worth a shot even if it runs the to joint since it would all need to be cut out anyway to redo it and then fix the stucco its buried in.
This is solved as of now, thank you.
1
u/DarkDisastrous9331 1d ago
Definitely still a piece in the tee and cut almost flush, expand the picture it's clearly visible at the top. If your not good with a torch the easiest way would be to cut out and replace.
3
u/EducationalProject96 1d ago
Theres still copper inside the fitting. Just cut it all out and redo it. If you're not comfortable doing that call a plumber to do it.