Leak - Sunday project :(

[Olf]

Today I woke up in a cold house with wet wall.

It looks like one branch of a tee (coming from a radiator) stopped being water tight. Again actually, as I had a little issue when hanging the radiator back after painting behind, but it was 2 weeks ago and all seemed ok since.

I'm not experienced with plumbing, so my questions:

- can I just replace the olive and nut, or is it better to fit a new piece of pipe. The existing olives are of different shape to what I have - does it matter?

- or should I replace the whole tee, althought the other joints seem ok. They're on the main curcuit and cutting the old olives would be pita because of access, so I'd rather avoid it

- or simply flood it with Fernox LS-X and pray it will hold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Olf

[Onoff]

That olive will be fine. They come in different forms and brass or copper. This is what I do, right or wrong!

 

-Clean the pipe well with wire wool.

-Push pipe in

-Smear of Jet Blue Plus where the pipe enters the fitting

-Push olive into seat on fitting

-Smear of Jet Blue Plus over the olive

-Nut it up

 

If the pipes clean up well you could use a Hep2O push fit for ease.

 

 

[Onoff]

I've one of these for 15mm pipe, I'll treat myself to a 22mm one one day:

 

https://www.toolstation.com/monument-olive-removing-tool/p36967?

[PeterW]

4 minutes ago, Onoff said:

That olive will be fine. They come in different forms and brass or copper. This is what I do, right or wrong!

 

Errr no it won’t. That’s an old flat faced nut and olive on the pipe currently and probably has a different thread to the new one. It is designed to push the olive into the taper on the fitting hence the shape of the olive. They won’t take well to a new shape olive. 
 

6 minutes ago, Onoff said:

If the pipes clean up well you could use a Hep2O push fit for ease.

 
Unlikely given the age of that lot and the paint and scale on the pipe. By the time it is clean enough for Hep2O it will be pretty badly scored. 
 

@Olf I would buy an olive splitter or use a multi tool to remove the olives on the old pipe, clean it up and use a new compression tee. You can split olives with a hacksaw and a screwdriver -  plenty of access there once the tee is out. 
 

 

[Olf]

Because I'm thinking of having UFH in place of leaky rads, I decided to go quick and dirty route of Fernox.

Actually having to drain the system probably saved me sorting another issue soon - fluid coming off was black, thick and smelly like oil, filter also loaded with gunk