Hey all you plumbing gods out there, I need some advice. I've done some sweating of copper joints, but not a lot.
I want to replace the shutoff valve shown in the photo below, which leads to our outdoor spigot, with a ball valve. I'd prefer to sweat the new valve on, if I can do it without burning down the house or melting the PVC pipe that goes horizontally across the top elbow.
You'll see the current valve is surrounded by elbows, the bottom one that the valve is touching, and the top one that is in front of a meltable PVC pipe. Would it be best to cut the copper tubing above the valve before the top elbow and use a coupler to put in the new ball valve, or should I heat up and remove that top elbow altogether?
Below the valve, I'm guessing my only option is to heat up and remove the bottom elbow (the joint in back of the bottom elbow doesn't show up well in the photo, but it's about an inch from the wallboard).
So should I replace top elbow to bottom elbow, or cut the tubing and put in a coupling below the top elbow and replace everything down to and including the bottom elbow? Or should I give up the sweating idea and just buy a sharkbite ball valve ?
A few more questions:
* Do those Oatey flame protector cloths work well? Would it keep the PVC pipe (which is about 1/4 inch from the elbow) from melting when I'm working on the top elbow with a propane torch? I'll be replacing another shutoff valve that is virtually touching a bare stud, so would the cloth provide enough protection there, too? Or is there a better option for flame/heat protection?
* As you can see in the photo, the bottom of the valve is touching the elbow. How'd the original plumber do that? I assume that they must have a little 1" piece of 3/4 inch tubing in there that we can't see that connects the valve and bottom elbow is that correct? There's no way to connect a shutoff valve directly to an elbow, is there?
Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!!
I want to replace the shutoff valve shown in the photo below, which leads to our outdoor spigot, with a ball valve. I'd prefer to sweat the new valve on, if I can do it without burning down the house or melting the PVC pipe that goes horizontally across the top elbow.
You'll see the current valve is surrounded by elbows, the bottom one that the valve is touching, and the top one that is in front of a meltable PVC pipe. Would it be best to cut the copper tubing above the valve before the top elbow and use a coupler to put in the new ball valve, or should I heat up and remove that top elbow altogether?
Below the valve, I'm guessing my only option is to heat up and remove the bottom elbow (the joint in back of the bottom elbow doesn't show up well in the photo, but it's about an inch from the wallboard).
So should I replace top elbow to bottom elbow, or cut the tubing and put in a coupling below the top elbow and replace everything down to and including the bottom elbow? Or should I give up the sweating idea and just buy a sharkbite ball valve ?
A few more questions:
* Do those Oatey flame protector cloths work well? Would it keep the PVC pipe (which is about 1/4 inch from the elbow) from melting when I'm working on the top elbow with a propane torch? I'll be replacing another shutoff valve that is virtually touching a bare stud, so would the cloth provide enough protection there, too? Or is there a better option for flame/heat protection?
* As you can see in the photo, the bottom of the valve is touching the elbow. How'd the original plumber do that? I assume that they must have a little 1" piece of 3/4 inch tubing in there that we can't see that connects the valve and bottom elbow is that correct? There's no way to connect a shutoff valve directly to an elbow, is there?
Thanks in advance for any advice you may have!!