Soldering to stainless steel plumbing

Hello,

I am new to this group, so I hope this is not too silly a question!

I have some stainless steel piping in my bathroom which I don't want to replace as it goes through a wall. Is it possible to solder ordinary copper plumbing fittings to this? Do I need special solder or flux.

While buying some bits at Plumbase I asked this and the answer was 'I don't think so' (to the soldering question), but other people say it is OK, and the current pipes seem to have ordinary copper (pre-soldered) fittings already.

Thank you for any responses.

Reply to
Peter Hawkins
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Are you sure you have stainless steel piping in the bathroom? Especially going through the wall (i.e., the supply lines)? Could it be chrome-plated brass or copper instead? Let me be the first to confess that I am no expert, but I have looked at my share of plumbing fixtures, and I've never seen stainless steel piping. (Maybe this will be my day to learn something new :)

I could imagine stainless steel fittings coming out of the faucets, but even then I would expect brass or copper, again possibly chrome plated.

My .02 ...

Andy

Reply to
Andrew H. Wakefield

I'm no expert either!! I believe it to be stainless steel. The house was built in the mid 60's and for some reason many houses built around then had stainless steel piping. When we had central heating fitted years ago, the plumber mentioned to me that he had removed some stainless steel piping and replaced it with copper. There can be a problem with electrolysis where stainless steel meets copper fittings like tees and elbows, and he had found a badly corroded elbow in our loft space.

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Hawkins

The easy method is to use a compression fitting - a good one (such as swagelok) will not be cheap, but it's fast and works well - and a good one will last a long time, unlike a cheap one...

Solder is certainly possible, but requires stuff you may or may not find at a regular plumbing supply (and almost definitely not at a home center or hardware store). Flux for soldering stainless steel is somewhat specialized and rather nasty (chemically active/aggressive for consumers).

Reply to
Ecnerwal

Normally you would use a transition fitting to connect copper to stainless steel. That way there is no electrolysis.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Well, live and learn -- I would have thought stainless steel would have been an impractical material to use for non-commercial water supply lines. Wouldn't it be less flexible and more expensive than copper? Wonder why they used it?

Andy

Reply to
Andrew H. Wakefield

I guess there might have been a shortage of copper around then.

Thanks for the replies. I will almost certainly use compression fittings. I have just done my first (plumbing) solder joints ever (and I'm no spring chicken!!) and liked the ease of it and the results, which is why I wanted to try it on the stainless steel bits.

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Hawkins

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