Taylors Paraffin Heater

[bumblefish]

I have just managed to get the pressure valve sorted on my header tank for the heater, very old tank and we had to bodge the new design valve into the old valve base, and I pumped up the pressure. Now I have a slight drip from the pipe as it feeds into the main body of the heater. I phoned Blakes and they all go home at 12:30 on a Friday! Does anyone know if the olives can be replaced or do I need to fit a new length of copper pipe with new olives both ends between the shut off valve and the main inlet?

 

[trouville]

If the old olives are damaged just replace them.If there really on cut accross the olive carfully and then slide it off.

 

[VicS]

You have to be careful not to score the pipe when splitting the olives or you wont get a new one to seal. Also if the unions have been tightened to the poit that the pipe has been squashed you'll have trouble getting new ones to seal. The latter is very likely to have happened if they have been tightened to try to stop leaks.

A new length of pipe with new olives is really the best solution.

 

[bumblefish]

Any idea on the correct diameter of pipe?

 

[Stemar]

A bit of teflon tape round the olive will almost certainly stop the drip. I wouldn't recommend it as a permanent fix, but it will buy you time to get the new bits you need.

BTW, in my (bitter personal /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif) experience, more - and harder to fix - leaks are caused by over tightening compression joints than not tightening them enough. Once you've over compressed an olive, usually the only remedy is to replace both it and the bit of pipe it's on.

 

[huldah]

I have had problems with olive type joints on a couple of occasions. As a result, I always push the pipe into the joint and then back out a fraction before tightening the joint. This makes sure that the pressure is on both sides of the olive, and not between the rear of the olive and the pipe stop in the joint. In this case further tightening will not work once the olive has been compressed onto the pipe.

I suggest you cut a fraction off the end of the pipe and try again.

I would be interested to hear the views of other forumites on this.

Philip