Reusing ball valve

[ToolsRMe]

In another thread, *Extending shower/bath supply lines*, it was mentioned that one should not bother attempting to reuse a fitting. I agree. I've had very little luck with that and just throw the fitting away. Except ...

Because of some, uh, interesting plumbing I had to reuse one end of a half-inch ball valve.

I cleaned the valve as best I could (but could not get down to bare brass), refluxed, and soldered. The joint held.

So some basic questions:

(a) Is a brass ball valve considered a fitting?

(b) Am I looking at problems in the future?

 

[Winslow]

In another thread, *Extending shower/bath supply lines*, it was mentioned that one should not bother attempting to reuse a fitting. I agree. I've had very little luck with that and just throw the fitting away. Except ...

Because of some, uh, interesting plumbing I had to reuse one end of a half-inch ball valve.

I cleaned the valve as best I could (but could not get down to bare brass), refluxed, and soldered. The joint held.

So some basic questions:

(a) Is a brass ball valve considered a fitting?

(b) Am I looking at problems in the future?

b
it will be fine.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

joint

NOT getting it down to brass probably made it a better joint, because the joint was "pretinned".

 

[ToolsRMe]

NOT getting it down to brass probably made it a better joint, because the joint was "pretinned".

Well, I've learned something new today. Thanks.

A follow-up question. Since the rules for a brass, uh, fitting (Is it a fitting?) seems to be different than for a copper fitting, is sweating different? That is, does one heat the (brass) valve or the copper?

Seems to me that you'd want to heat the valve.

 

[Jadnashua]

Heat the valve, or fitting, not the pipe going into it.

 

[hj]

sweating

There is no major difference. A brass item has more mass so it will take a bit longer to heat up, but that is the only real difference.