Hi there folks,
I've spent the past few days struggling with the plumbing in the mechanical room of a small house I've built. I'd fixed everything until all that was left to repair was one joint near a check valve. I figured out that water was pooling in the check valve (it has a rounded, bulbous shape) and that it was bubbling up from the nearby heat of soldering, running toward the joint I was soldering and, of course, ruining it. So I removed the top of the check valve by unscrewing the cap, dried everything thoroughly (it seemed to "hide" water in its flap, too, requiring a ton of compressed air to get totally dry), and re-soldered successfully.
Then--predictably, after all the missteps I've had--the cap to the check valve made a funny noise as I was seating it into place. I opened it back up to examine and found that a half-round of the female thread of the valve had broken off. I was a bit stunned--I really hadn't tightened the cap that much. I hoped that it wouldn't make a difference, so I put it back on, tightened again, and POP! The cap snapped in half along the male threads.
Argh.
So my questions are:
1.) Is there any way to fix the female thread that snapped off? Is it absolutely necessary? The cap seals with a little plastic ring at the base of the threads. Removing the valve and replacing it seems impossible at this point. I'd like to just get a new cap and put it back into place. I think *I* might snap in half if I have to remove and replace the whole thing...
2.) What did I do wrong? Do brass threads just snap apart sometimes? Did I overtighten it? It really didn't feel like I was applying too much torque--I was really surprised by what happened...
Thanks for any advice.
Doug
I've spent the past few days struggling with the plumbing in the mechanical room of a small house I've built. I'd fixed everything until all that was left to repair was one joint near a check valve. I figured out that water was pooling in the check valve (it has a rounded, bulbous shape) and that it was bubbling up from the nearby heat of soldering, running toward the joint I was soldering and, of course, ruining it. So I removed the top of the check valve by unscrewing the cap, dried everything thoroughly (it seemed to "hide" water in its flap, too, requiring a ton of compressed air to get totally dry), and re-soldered successfully.
Then--predictably, after all the missteps I've had--the cap to the check valve made a funny noise as I was seating it into place. I opened it back up to examine and found that a half-round of the female thread of the valve had broken off. I was a bit stunned--I really hadn't tightened the cap that much. I hoped that it wouldn't make a difference, so I put it back on, tightened again, and POP! The cap snapped in half along the male threads.
Argh.
So my questions are:
1.) Is there any way to fix the female thread that snapped off? Is it absolutely necessary? The cap seals with a little plastic ring at the base of the threads. Removing the valve and replacing it seems impossible at this point. I'd like to just get a new cap and put it back into place. I think *I* might snap in half if I have to remove and replace the whole thing...
2.) What did I do wrong? Do brass threads just snap apart sometimes? Did I overtighten it? It really didn't feel like I was applying too much torque--I was really surprised by what happened...
Thanks for any advice.
Doug
