water service

[Mario Blas]

When repairing a underground water service pipe which method is best ? Brazing? Flaring? or Commpression?
The pipe has a nasty kink it it and it has to be cut out .
It is 3/4″ opper (soft)

[Retired plbg1]

I would braze it , flareing it weakens the copper at the flare if it is thin copper, here we use type K copper for service, if you can braze it thats what I would do.

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Art retired plbg

[nicktheplumber]

I agree with RP that if you are using Cu pipe underground you should use the heaviest gauge. However, it is always preferrable to use a continuous run of such pipe underground, ideally withou ANY joints, brazed, flared, compression, soldered, or otherwise. For this purpose heavy guage bendable copper pipe is preferred.

I suspect that RP may be confusing “brazing” and “soldering.” These are two different processes.

Soldering is the process of joining metals (usually similar, such as Cu-Cu, by connecting them with a relatively low-melting-point “solder,” usually a lead-tin alloy heated to a temperature that does not melt the conjoined metals. “Brazing,” on the other hand requires higher temperatures that may melt the metals that are meant to be joined, resulting in a stronger “welded” joint, sometimes involving dissimilar metals.

“Brazing” Cu pipe joints I’m sure is possible, but would be difficult to do properly. Such joints in K, L, or M schedule pipe are best soldered and not brazed.

In my practice, I use either non-jointed continuous runs of flexible copper pipe underground, or I use threaded pipe.

NtP

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