Straightening Speedfit pipe

[Tomska]

OK, plumbing's next. Speedfit pipe comes on a coil and seems to want to stay that way. I have an 8 metre run to do - any tips on how to straighten the bugger out?

 

Thanks.

[KevTheWelder]

What I've done before is, say your pipe is 8mm outside diameter, get yourself a length of 8mm inside diameter pipe, stick that in a vice, and feed the pipe through. I'm sure someone will have a better idea, it's not my specialist area, but it helps a lot.

Edited February 10, 2009 by KevTheWelder

[Serendipity]

Don't think you can. I used it to install CH in a house a few years back, similar length run to yours through holes drilled in the joists. Even though the holes were generous it took three people to get it through due to the friction. One pulling, one pushing the other end, and one in the middle.

 

Use lots of pipe clips and make sure the end result is panneled in?

[Ex- Member]

The only way i found was to lay it out for a week holding it down with some weight, still tended to coil spring back slightly, but much less than the original coil, it is a pain though.

 

A guy i know fitting out a boat just put a long row of pipe clips along the battoning through the boat and clipped it into place until needed. It certainly makes things easier when trying to thread this stuff through awkward places. For any pipework showing it's worth buying the 3m lengths of straight pipe, my engine room calorfier plumbing looks awful as even short lengths of coil pipe still tend to curve, either that or use a pipe clip every 4 inches

[Justme]

Just put it in the sun (yeh right) to warm up.

 

Justme

[NBMike]

If you use Hep20 plastic pipe which virtually the same except for the inserts, you can buy it in 3m straight lengths

Edited February 10, 2009 by NBMike

[Tomska]

Thanks all.

 

The only way i found was to lay it out for a week holding it down with some weight

 

Just put it in the sun (yeh right) to warm up.

 

Hmmm. I could weight down the ends and use the wife's hair dryer to warm it up.

 

Think that would do it?

[Neil TNC]

OK, plumbing's next. Speedfit pipe comes on a coil and seems to want to stay that way. I have an 8 metre run to do - any tips on how to straighten the bugger out?

 

Thanks.

 

My son who works for John Guest, says in a cold environment, they recommend passing the pipe through a bath of hot water and don't use use a hot air gun as it can damage the pipe.

He also says please buy lots more of it, so there is not another wave of redundancies

[alan_fincher]

I think it is massively easier to work with the pipe supplied in straight 3 metre lengths, such as Hep2O make.

 

No amount of clipping seems to ever stop the coiled stuff trying to go back to it's natural state, meaning the result can look unprofessional, (if you don't believe me, there were some pictures on here of a calorifier installation by one of the well known boatbuilders, and it looked like it had been done by a 6 year old.

 

BES don't charge any extra for delivery of small amount of 3m pipe lengths, despite it arriving in boxes large enough to house a small alligator.

[RobinJ]

Speedfit pipe comes on a coil and seems to want to stay that way. I have an 8 metre run to do - any tips on how to straighten the bugger out?

How about a couple of stop ends, fill with hot water and lay out to cool!

[MoominPapa]

BES don't charge any extra for delivery of small amount of 3m pipe lengths, despite it arriving in boxes large enough to house a small alligator.

The courier posted my 3m length of pipe from BES (copper, not plastic (spit)) through the letter box but was stymied by the fact that the hall wall is less than 3m from the front door.

 

MP.

[David Schweizer]

I have done the reverse of straightening, when I needed a very short length of 22mm Hep20 curved to follow the curve of the calorifier. I used a Hot air gun (on low setting) and gradually introduced the bend.When it had cooled down, the pir=pe remained with more or less the same curve.

 

I would think that strightening it would work just as well using the asame method. You could try poking a length of dowel down the pipe first to hold it straight whilst applying the heat.

[starman]

I've used both straight and coiled and found the 3m straight lengths much easier. The coils are an absolute pain and never get truly straight -- even when held in clips they are under tension. The straight lengths can also be bent a little by hand (and stay bent) to ease past obstructions and you can get special clamps to hold them in longer curves.

I wouldn't have any worries about jointing 3m lengths if needed - I plumbed a whole house, underfloor heating, h&c water etc, with Speedfit connectors and only had one leak which was where I hadn't pushed the pipe right home. A far higher success rate than my soldered copper joints and much faster too. Just use proper pipe cutters and remember the inserts.

[smileypete]

OK, plumbing's next. Speedfit pipe comes on a coil and seems to want to stay that way. I have an 8 metre run to do - any tips on how to straighten the bugger out?

 

I just carefully bent it backwards on itself using palms and thumbs, unrolling the coil in doing so.

 

It then springs back straight or with a much gentler curve, and should be clipped in place soonish.

 

Here's a piccy of part of my plumbing:

 

 

The runs along the batten look perfectly straight in situ.

 

The double curve at the top was a bit of a challenge and would be better done with 2 elbows. The gentler single curve below it was a piece of cake.

 

I used copper/solder ring where there are more joins in a small space, the pipe needs to be self supporting, and where it's reasonably frost safe.

 

Then PEX for the longer runs, and where where gentle curves are handy.

 

Also short lengths of copper to transition between compression fitting and push fittings.

 

'Talon' clips are useful for clipping it into place:

 

,

 

and I used 'Tectite' normal (not Tectite Pro) push fittings:

 

 

cheers,

Pete.

[starman]

Probably just worth adding that you can use normal brass compression fittings, standard compression fit in-line valves etc, with plastic pipe or to join plastic to copper. Just don't forget those inserts.

[MoominPapa]

Probably just worth adding that you can use normal brass compression fittings, standard compression fit in-line valves etc, with plastic pipe or to join plastic to copper. Just don't forget those inserts.

I must admit I've always been highly dubious about that. It just seems inherently unlikely that something designed to seal to copper will work well with plastic which is much softer and has a much larger range on "softness" over the normal temperature range. I always use push-fit fittings to transition between copper and plastic. I must emphasise that this is pure prejudice on my part, I've never seen a failure of plastic pipe in a compression fitting, but that may be because I never install them.

 

MP.

[starman]

I must admit I've always been highly dubious about that. It just seems inherently unlikely that something designed to seal to copper will work well with plastic which is much softer and has a much larger range on "softness" over the normal temperature range. I always use push-fit fittings to transition between copper and plastic. I must emphasise that this is pure prejudice on my part, I've never seen a failure of plastic pipe in a compression fitting, but that may be because I never install them.

 

MP.

 

 

Well, I was dubious too until I tried it -- I have a number in the house and they're all fine, have been for several years now. I'm careful not to over-tighten when first fitting and tweak up slowly if there's a driip. Speedfit says it's an ok practice too. I still only use them for in-line valves and the rare occasion I need to go from plastic to copper pipe.

[David Schweizer]

I must admit I've always been highly dubious about that. It just seems inherently unlikely that something designed to seal to copper will work well with plastic which is much softer and has a much larger range on "softness" over the normal temperature range. I always use push-fit fittings to transition between copper and plastic. I must emphasise that this is pure prejudice on my part, I've never seen a failure of plastic pipe in a compression fitting, but that may be because I never install them.

 

MP.

I've been connecting Hep20 and copper pipe with both Hep20 and brass compression fittings for years, never had one fail yet.

Edited February 11, 2009 by David Schweizer