Copper pipes, unions leaking

[BOBALOO]

I have spent the whole weekend repiping my house, ( lucky me ) and I cant get the POS copper unions to stop leaking at the point where the two halves come together. I have done what seems like hundreds of fittings and it comes down to the stupid unions leaking. I am TIRED of crawling around under my house and need some advice on how to stop the leaks.
The pipes are perfectly straight and I dont have to pull on them or "tweak" them to line them up and the mating surfaces are smooth also. Should I smother pipe dope on the mating surfaces or just adapt pvc unions to the copper and use grounding jumpers over the unions to keep a continuous ground?
.....HELP

[Party Cat]

I have spent the whole weekend repiping my house, ( lucky me ) and I cant get the POS copper unions to stop leaking at the point where the two halves come together. I have done what seems like hundreds of fittings and it comes down to the stupid unions leaking. I am TIRED of crawling around under my house and need some advice on how to stop the leaks.
The pipes are perfectly straight and I dont have to pull on them or "tweak" them to line them up and the mating surfaces are smooth also. Should I smother pipe dope on the mating surfaces or just adapt pvc unions to the copper and use grounding jumpers over the unions to keep a continuous ground?
.....HELP
Call the Vee's :D :D

[BOBALOO]

T&B, I hava had ZERO problems sweating fittings. The mating surfaces look perfect buyt when i screw them together they leak. I bought them yesterday and they have one concave surface and one convex surface, both smooth as a baby's butt.
Thanks for the bread tip I learned that one from my dad many years ago.

[BOBALOO]

No tape, the union sweats on to the 1" copper lines and one half is threaded and the other half has a nut. Sandwiched in between are the mating surfaces.
Oh well back under the house for me with a bucket of joint compound.

[Phat Matt]

Just go to your fridge and get a beer. :D

[BK]

I have had a number of problems with unions over the years. Main thing is to make sure they're aligned properly and when you sweated the fittings you didnt get any solder on the unions mating surfaces (sounds like you allready have), as even the tinyest amount will cause a problem. Also, im allways surprised how tight I have to get them at times in order to get a good tight seal. I had a 2" copper union that kept leaking recently, took two of us and three pipe wrenches to make sure we didnt tweek it, to get it tight enough so that it stopped leaking. Hope you get it figured out.

[DesertDog]

copper unions can be kind of tricky.Wiggle the pipes a little as you tighten the union nut and you should be able to tighten it enough to stop the leak.

[*BN*]

If they are import fittings they probably are not straight.
Normal procedure is, before sweating, tighten the union by hand and then set on the table and check to see how far off they are. If they out of alignment they will be tough to seal.
Did you sweat them while they were apart? To much heat can warp or distort them.

[bchbum]

Wrap teflon tape on the male threads that the large nut screws onto. Put the tape on the same way you tighten the nut ,so the tape doen't ball up . Sometimes you need to wrap the tape on the joint where to 2 halves meet ( it will act like a gasket )

[hot_diggity_dog]

Call the Flyin Vee's!
HDD

[BOBALOO]

FIXED!!!!!
I dont know if it was all the swearing at the unions or the liberal amount of pipe dope but they are not leaking now. My pipes learned a few new words today. I think the 3/4" one had a couple pieces of grit in the joint and the 1" needed the swearing to cinch things up.
Now I just have to patch up the access holes next weekend. My honey do list is almost finished and we cant wait to get to the river and forget about the winter projects.
Thanks for the input everyone.

[hot_diggity_dog]

FIXED!!!!!
I dont know if it was all the swearing at the unions or the liberal amount of pipe dope but they are not leaking now. My pipes learned a few new words today. I think the 3/4" one had a couple pieces of grit in the joint and the 1" needed the swearing to cinch things up.
Now I just have to patch up the access holes next weekend. My honey do list is almost finished and we cant wait to get to the river and forget about the winter projects.
Thanks for the input everyone.
Are you going this comming weekend?
HDD

[BOBALOO]

Sorry to say I'm not Glenn. We just got back from a 10 day vacation to the Caribbean and I wont be able to get back out to the river til memorial. We are stayin at C-Horse with the Scubas and are doing the Family picnic the weekend after.
Hold down the fort for us will ya?

[BOBALOO]

I have only had 1 beer beliveve it or not in 2 days. I like to get all my work done before rewarding myself for a job well done.