I am replacing a hot water heater. When I try to solder the connectors the heat creats condensation inside the copper piping and the solder will not hold. Any suggestions

Joshdta

put in a union, get a non soder shark bite. I take it you still have some water in the pipes? Is this the suplly line or the hot line??

letmetellu

If you can ever get the water out of the line it will solder, and I don't think it is necessarily condensation I think it is just the water that was in the line because if you get it hot enough the water will evaporate.

welder780

Actually both lines have condendation in them. I will try what you have suggested. Thanks.

pare_john

an old trick that i use is to put a pit of bread in the pipe (not the crust) this will absorb the water allowing you enough time to solder the pipe. The bread will then deteriorate into pieces and come out of the pipe on its own once the water is turned back on.

welder780

Thanks for all the tips.

Milo Dolezal

You use "Wonderbread"....It's made for plumbers and situations like yours !

csavage1

You must make sure the joint is super clean and there is flux in the fitting and on the pipe before you put the fitting together.

Acetylene is much hotter than propane and if a turbo torch is used it will boil that condensation away.

Another note open all upper waterlines to drain all the water before starting to solder.

Good luck

massplumber2008

Hi all:

If all pipes are opened and drained there should be no need for any "tricks"...

If after opening all faucets (including the outside faucets) there is still water issues then the connection at the water meter outlet needs to be cracked to allow water to drip at that fitting as it is likely that the main water shutoff is malfunctioning.

There can also occasionally be a siphoning effect at times where water gets pulled from a water heater, for example, when draining systems down and that causes difficulties with soldering. In this case, draining water from the heater seems to fix this issue.

Finally, if pipes are below a level that they cannot be drained properly you can use a wet vacuum to pull water out of pipes and/or you can BOIL the water out of the pipe using a torch to a point that you can solder.

In all my years, if I followed this advice then I never had issues soldering.

MARK

speedball1

And a final word! Condensate occurs on the outside walls of pipes not the inside. Tom