No more MAPP!

Just to clarify- MAPP is not the same chemistry as MAP-Pro and MAPP burns (used to burn) hotter. The "yellow bottle" is part of the deceptive marketing.
 
GunsOfNavarone said:
What the heck are you supposed to sweat copper pipe with propane? Particularly when it's cold out, I'll say it's impossible.
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Not at all. In fact, I have very rarely used "true" MAPP gas for sweating copper pipes. I used to own a house that had an electrolysis problem, and it would chew through copper pipes like mad. I got to be very good at sweating copper pipe. Absolutely no issues whatsoever, even when it was cold. Now, if you are trying to fix a leak with the water still in the line, that would be a no beuno.
A little trick for sweating copper when there is a little water left in them (that tiny drip, drip that will ruin your solder joint) is to get yourself some cheap white bread (no wheat or anything like that) and stuff enough up the pipe to stop the drip. Get it soldered together quickly before the water makes it past the bread. Once you turn the water back on, the bread disintegrates, and you are back in business.
 
Neil is right on target. You cannot sweat a pipe with any water in it. I have only used the bread trick once but it is slick. Take the aerators out of the downstream faucet.
 
rwm said:
I'm gonna get me so dicyanoacetylene.
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rwm said:
It is available on Titan
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Too far!
I stopped going to my local NAPA gas outlet when they changed suppliers and I'd have to drive 60km to get the same tanks filled at a different outlet of the old supplier.

You expect me to go a moon of Jupiter?
I ain't got time for that!

.....and then there's the overhead.
I wouldn't be able to hide the cost of that mission in the current shop budget, the wife is gonna know!

;)
Brian
 
Brian-Look on Facebook Marketplace and get a used oxygen concentrator. 95% O2 from room air. Much easier than the Titan trip...
 
Once I got a B tank, I never went back to propane for plumbing. With acetylene, I just select a reasonable tip, and the pipe is heated to soldering temperature in a short time. I used my grandfather's Prestolite torch. Light weight and easy to use. Hot enough to melt copper if you sit on it long enough.

For serious heat, I use oxy-acetylene.

I second the bread trick. Works great.
 
I am long out of new construction plumbing and have at least 10 B tanks at my shop. All empty except for 1.
 
7milesup said:
Not at all. In fact, I have very rarely used "true" MAPP gas for sweating copper pipes. I used to own a house that had an electrolysis problem, and it would chew through copper pipes like mad. I got to be very good at sweating copper pipe. Absolutely no issues whatsoever, even when it was cold. Now, if you are trying to fix a leak with the water still in the line, that would be a no beuno.
A little trick for sweating copper when there is a little water left in them (that tiny drip, drip that will ruin your solder joint) is to get yourself some cheap white bread (no wheat or anything like that) and stuff enough up the pipe to stop the drip. Get it soldered together quickly before the water makes it past the bread. Once you turn the water back on, the bread disintegrates, and you are back in business.
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Pro press is a better trick than bread........
 
I guess I've been lucky, I've always been able to do my pipe repairs dry. I don't have any MAPP/Pro, only the good stuff so I cannot say how the Pro works, but I was getting worried reading some of the issues people here wrote. That being said, the high here yesterday was -15, windchill it was -48. The kind of weather that likes to break a pipe. How's Mapp/pro in those conditions, I'm sure I'll find out one day though retiring in Tennessee is only 2-3 years off if all goes to plan.
 
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