Sweating my sweating

After a reasonable degree of research and trepedation I sweated my first copper joints last weekend as part of a bathroom overhaul. All appears to have gone well as the 6 joints have shown no signs of leaking since connection to the water supply. Everthing worked great the first time which scares me based on some of the horror stories I have read.

Even though everything appears to be fine I am still nervous that two days after I get the walls drywalled, sealed, and tiled that a joint is going to blow.

When working with copper pipe does passing the 'leak test' provide a reasonable degree of confidence that the joint is strong and will last? I am preparing to sweat quite a few joints as part of a Grohe customer shower install and want to do my due diligence in making sure I am doing all I can to provide long lasting joints.

On a separate note, I have read many people suggest that MAPP is much easier to deal with than propane when sweating joints. When using propane I felt like I was leaving the flame on the joint for too long and "burning" the joint yet if I didn't leave it on there I felt like I wasn't establishing enough heat to get the solder going. I am definitely willing to burn another $40 or so and go MAPP if it provides additional ease or benefit. Any thoughts?

MAPP seemed to be easier for me (I've used both). It burns hotter than propane. Either torch will easily get the fitting hot enough to solder, it is just that MAPP gets there faster (unless you were dealing with a really large fitting outside, or in the middle of winter!). Keep in mind that you want the joint hot enough for the solder to flow into the joint without the flame on it. Move the flame around the fitting to heat it more evenly and test to see if the solder flows, give it a few seconds them give it the solder for real. Very clean surfaces and flux make the solder flow properly. Wipe the joint off to remove the excess solder and flux. If the solder flowed in you should be okay. From one DIY'er...

sweat

If you burn the joint you should take it apart and redo it since the interior surface of the joint will also be burnt so that solder will not flow into the joint. I had a customer with a 30 year old house. Once day he dropped a can of peas on a joint inside the cabinet and it came apart. It had held for 30 years and only took a nudge to separate, and apparently in those 30 years, even though the joint had always been exposed in the cabinet, he had never disturbed it. So not leaking for a few days is not an assurance that there is no problem, it is usually the only test that is available. With the proper torch, the only thing necessary to go with MAPP gas is to buy the "bottle" of gas itself.