A few plumbing related questions!

[Angelheart]

Firstly I have a V&B kitchen tap. I need to use couplers to connect to 15mm pipe. I have taken a pic of the tails from the sink tap, does anyone know what size this would be as I’ve already been to Screwfix twice and the 15mm x 1/2 are too big it seems?
 

Also is it the best idea to pipe under the sink in copper as much as possible? I have poly coming in but need to link up to my dishwasher and tap. I was planning to use a 15mm straight compression fitting on the poly with the pipe insert. I have a t with isolator to branch off to the dishwasher. Does anyone know the purpose of the white triangle piece and what that is telling me? 
 

Finally, I have two drawers under my sink unit. The lower drawer is fouling on the trap. Seems a poor design of the Ideal Standard drawer unit really. I’ve looked into using the McAlpine non return valve but realised there is some sort of collar on the waste pipe that was not there before so I think this will be in the way of the nrv as they are quite long and I’m limited on depth available. I’ve purchased a shallower trap but this will still mean cutting the drawer, albeit a bit less. I have about 2” from the underside of the pipe to the drawer edge. 
 

Any advice much appreciated.

[Angelheart]

[Angelheart]

[MJNewton]

3 hours ago, Angelheart said:

Firstly I have a V&B kitchen tap. I need to use couplers to connect to 15mm pipe. I have taken a pic of the tails from the sink tap, does anyone know what size this would be as I’ve already been to Screwfix twice and the 15mm x 1/2 are too big it seems?

 

Don't be fooled into thinking you can just measure what you've got in front of you - it all gets very misleading.

 

With a European tap connector you likely need a 3/8" BSP connection e.g. via these which will get you to a standard 15mm pipe for inserting into a compression/pushfit fitting.

 

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Also is it the best idea to pipe under the sink in copper as much as possible? I have poly coming in but need to link up to my dishwasher and tap. I was planning to use a 15mm straight compression fitting on the poly with the pipe insert. I have a t with isolator to branch off to the dishwasher. Does anyone know the purpose of the white triangle piece and what that is telling me? 

 

What white triangle piece? Apologies if it's staring me in the face! I can see the blue plastic piece in the installation booklet; that's required for sinks less 5mm thick in order to provide additional rigidity to the tap fixing. Or is the white component of the dishwasher hose? That's to detect/stop leaks from a split hose, or within the machine depending on specific implementation, and will turn off the supply in such a situation.

 

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Finally, I have two drawers under my sink unit. The lower drawer is fouling on the trap. Seems a poor design of the Ideal Standard drawer unit really. I’ve looked into using the McAlpine non return valve but realised there is some sort of collar on the waste pipe that was not there before so I think this will be in the way of the nrv as they are quite long and I’m limited on depth available. I’ve purchased a shallower trap but this will still mean cutting the drawer, albeit a bit less. I have about 2” from the underside of the pipe to the drawer edge.

 

Might a HepVO waterless trap fit without fouling the drawer? Might be a tight fit for the gap to the wall though.

 

 

Or a McAlpine WHB-1 shallow space saver:

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by MJNewton

[Angelheart]

Thanks for your response MJ, yes sorry my bad, it shows as blue in the leaflet but the part is actually white. Mine is going straight into the worktop as I don’t have the arrangement shown in the diagram and I have quartz which is 20mm thick therefore is your opinion that I do or do not need to use it? 
 

Yes I’ve considered both of these options but feel that the addition of this sleeve on the waste pipe will prevent me from doing that due to the space needed, the Hep one is def too long, the McAlpine is a bit shorter. 
 

I will take a look for the size coupler that you mentioned, they don’t seem to do this size in mainstream places like screwfix that I can see.

[Angelheart]

Am I right in thinking that I need a couple of these? I think this will solve my first issue.

 

Had a bit of a drama earlier involving my daughter and a water spillage and ended up taking the kickboards off, discovered which of my inlets was hot and which was cold so that was a win as they were not marked where it was visible 🙈

 

Would I be better to tidy these up below and come out of the elbow in copper straight into the cupboard above which would save me using the straight compression couplers that I purchased earlier and have less connections going on? 
 

I am assuming that is possible as I have seen copper used in the plastic fittings? 

[MikeSharp01]

11 hours ago, Angelheart said:

 Can you not go away from the sink waste parallel to the wall with the McAlpine shallow trap and then come back to the pipe with a U-bend mounted horizontally, so just acts as a pipe, or just use a flexi like THIS one   with a 90deg bend on the end of the wall pipe. That should keep it all above the draw.

[MJNewton]

3 hours ago, Angelheart said:

I will take a look for the size coupler that you mentioned, they don’t seem to do this size in mainstream places like screwfix that I can see.

 

Apologies - I screwed up the link. Here it is again.

[Angelheart]

1 hour ago, MJNewton said:

 

Apologies - I screwed up the link. Here it is again.

I already have these, so is it better to just buy those bushes that I posted above or is your link the better option please? 

[MJNewton]

No, the bushes you showed have the wrong male/female orientation (they fit into a 1/2" female and accept a 3/8" male bit you've got a 3/8" female on the end of your tap connector). 

[Angelheart]

2 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

 Can you not go away from the sink waste parallel to the wall with the McAlpine shallow trap and then come back to the pipe with a U-bend mounted horizontally, so just acts as a pipe, or just use a flexi like THIS one   with a 90deg bend on the end of the wall pipe. That should keep it all above the draw.

I cannot picture in my head exactly what you mean. 

[MikeSharp01]

Connect the McAlpine shallow trap directly to the sink, it will run horizontally away from the sink outlet run parallel to the wall. This puts the McAlpine outlet some way from the pipe coming out of the wall hence the next bit. So if you fit a 90deg bend on the end of the wall pipe you can have the McAlpine and the inlet to the 90deg bend running parallel to one another. You can then either fit a u-bend or a flexi to join the two together mounted in the horizontal plane. All the pipework will run roughly horizontal so you will need to arrange a small slope but that should be possible. There will be no pipework more than a few millimetres below the base of the McAlpine trap and this should clear the drawer    

[Angelheart]

8 hours ago, MJNewton said:

No, the bushes you showed have the wrong male/female orientation (they fit into a 1/2" female and accept a 3/8" male bit you've got a 3/8" female on the end of your tap connector). 

Ok I’ve got those connected now MJ and the connector will go straight into the top of my T for the dishwasher. Thanks for that info! 
 

So just a couple more questions so I can get this straight in my head… am I better just to run one piece of copper up from underneath the unit to each feed on the sink. I assume that I can put copper into the pushfit shown there? If so it’s quite simple from here forward. 
 

And lastly, I’m understanding the diagram a bit better for that triangle plastic piece. All the diagrams show the tap going through the sink which mine doesn’t so I’m still unclear as to whether it is necessary or not. Do you think I should contact V&B to clarify as the instruction booklet is as clear as mud 🤣

[Angelheart]

6 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Connect the McAlpine shallow trap directly to the sink, it will run horizontally away from the sink outlet run parallel to the wall. This puts the McAlpine outlet some way from the pipe coming out of the wall hence the next bit. So if you fit a 90deg bend on the end of the wall pipe you can have the McAlpine and the inlet to the 90deg bend running parallel to one another. You can then either fit a u-bend or a flexi to join the two together mounted in the horizontal plane. All the pipework will run roughly horizontal so you will need to arrange a small slope but that should be possible. There will be no pipework more than a few millimetres below the base of the McAlpine trap and this should clear the drawer    

Ok perhaps I should order one and give it a go. I’ll investigate this further. Thanks for the suggestion. 

[MJNewton]

28 minutes ago, Angelheart said:

And lastly, I’m understanding the diagram a bit better for that triangle plastic piece. All the diagrams show the tap going through the sink which mine doesn’t so I’m still unclear as to whether it is necessary or not. 

You don't need it. It's only required when fitting directly into a thin sink e.g. a pressed metal sink that would otherwise flex when operating the tap. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by MJNewton

[Angelheart]

1 hour ago, Angelheart said:
 

Great, will remove the triangle then as felt it was not required in my situation.

 

So just to clarify, am I better just to run one piece of copper up from underneath the unit to each feed on the sink? I assume that I can put copper into the pushfit shown there? If so it’s quite simple from here forward.. just a bit of pipe cutting and connecting to do. Thanks for all the advice. 

 

[Temp]

Im a bit late but sometimes it's easier just to replace the flexible tails that come with the tap to ones that have the right other ends. Not always possible but I've done that. I also fitted isolation valves between the tails and the copper pipe.