Plumbing question? (Soldering question)?

What is this the best way to solder copper when there is water in the system?

Public Comments

1. There is not only water in the system there is also water pressure to contend with.
2. if the water is dripping out of the connection you want to solder, push some bread into the pipe where the water is coming from. it will stop the water for a few minutes. then when you turn the water back on it pushes the bread out.
3. take a piece of white bread and form it into a ball that fits tight into the pipe. Push it into the pipe back from where you are soldering. After you are finished the bread will break down and will come out a tap. It just holds the water back long enough to solder the joint
4. either drain the system , cut it somewhere and let the water run out it will take you forever if you do it with water in there
5. A piece of white bread is the old-school trick. You can also get plastic like balls that disolve (see here http://www.wmharvey.com/prod/cat7/dissolvable.php). You can find them at a hardware store. They hold off the water longer than the white bread.
6. There is no best way to solder copper when there is water in the system. You must remove the water. Besides the white bread and dissolveable (?) balls, what I found to work best was to shut the water off at the main line to your home then open all your faucets, wait until dripping stops, then try soldering. If there is still water in your pipes (like there was in mine) you will see steam come out of the pipe as you attempt to solder preventing a good solder joint. What I did was to close all faucets except the one closest to the inlet water to your home ( if you can do this upstream from this faucet even better). Then I took my air compressor (with appropriate nozzle) and blew air into the faucet and watched the water exit the pipe where you are trying to solder (I am assuming it is disconnected and unsoldered at this time). Be sure to close the faucet to your toilet(s). If you still have water at the soldering site, then cap this end and systematically open and close one faucet at a time while blowing the compressed air into the line. This worked very well. Good luck!
7. do all the pipework that needs doing to the dripping pipe then just install a compression fitting.!!!!!
8. i would get a rose bud tip for my torch that way it heats up the copper and water and you still able to solder it, that is if there is just a tricle of water, if you can not turn the water off and do this i think you maybe screwed