In an effort to tidy up my gas bottle cupboard in readiness for the grand fitting of my Propex heater at Techenders, I set about installing a 8mm 4 tap gas manifold and replacing the 2002 dated rubber hose bits. Last weekend, having got my 8mm couplings etc bought ready for the job, I found 2 original bits of copper pipe from the oven and the fridge are 6mm not 8mm - so I ordered a couple of reducing compression couplers. Only the sodding things don't fit. I think the original pipe work must be imperial not metric. The pipe is too big and no amount of swearing at it is going to make the olives or the screwy-up bits go on. I'm rapidly coming to the end of my tether and wishing to god I'd never started this. The trouble is of course, I did start it and now there's no going back... unless I want to never cook in my campervan again, and have warm unrefridgerated milk. Help! I think 1/4" is probably the closest to 6mm (fractionally larger) so this must be the copper pipe size - but there doesn't appear to be any form of compression coupler that I can find on t'internet that reduces 8mm to 1/4". The best I can find is imperial to imperial 5/16" to 1/4". Any ideas. Will Imperial to imperial be close enough to not gas me in my bed??
No , you will die ... Anyone do a 6mm to flexi connecter like the 8mm one you have ?? That might be the easy way - i don`t think anyone does a 6mm to 8mm step ?? (but i may be wrong ...)
Is there anyway to replace the pipes on the hob and fridge with new 8mm stuff? Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Thanks Chris! I did think about going from copper to flexi back to copper into the manifold, but it's an extra set of joins so was hoping to stick with just copper to copper. 6mm to 8mm isn't a problem with an unequal coupling, but I think the existing copper must be imperial 1/4" as the 6mm bits I (mistakenly) bought aren't quite big enough. It's only fractions, but it's enough to mean they aint gonna go on, and there doesn't seem to be unequal and metric to imperial all in one coupling. Grrrrr. It's all character building!
I think that would be the obvious answer - and it's probably not toooo hard to get the fridge out; but it's the oven not the hob that is the other problem (they are separate units - the hob is lovely 8mm rubber hose, and is, as yet, my only success - but at least I can boil the kettle )..... I think sadly oven removal may just be a step too far! I've seen a 1/4" to 5/16" straight coupling, and whilst the 1/4" may just be a fractionally large enough increase on the metric 6mm to fit the existing pipe, I'm hoping the 5/16" part might be close enough to 8mm not to leak (I've got some jointing compound and I can use 8mm olives inside) Never in my wildest dreams did I think 3 years ago that I would be worrying about such things......!
To be honest, I've not really much idea about plumbing type soldering. I am assuming its not the same as the soldering I did when I made up a long set of audio phono leads to connect my stereo to my pc? It's different, right?
Where was the bus set up for camping? My Berlin is German spec and wheras the pipe size is OK, the end couplings don't match up with British metric gas stuff. I got the bits on a trip to Germany but the Reimo catalogue does them. Don't know if this applies to you though.
According to various receipts that I got when I bought it, the interior was replaced in 2002 (the date stamp on the rubber hose that I just ripped out would support this!), so it's definitely UK spec - but I can't quite see why it would have imperial diameter gas pipe... but the 6mm fittings are just that fraction too small so it must be.
That would be the answer . Could be worth asking @Merlin Cat / @Merlin Cat1 / @Merlin Cat2 if she`d be so kind as to bring bring flux and a good blowtorch ..... And while she`s around .....
1/4 to rats tail. 8mm to rats tail and hose to join them up ......although jubilee clips are not a good idea you need to use O clips
If I can't solve it this week, I think this may be the answer...... (although the tail on the copper from the oven is uncomfortably short *eek* )
I'm going to helpfully look in my garage as I have some gas pipe fittings etc that I had left over from Spain. I shall look for imperial to metric converters. I started looking on a few web sites for you but lost the will . Do you want 1/4" pipe to 6 or 8 mm? I could check it out next week. Are you going from copper onto rubber hose? Found some that would suffice. I take it the pipe to cooker is in copper not naughty hose all the way to the top?
@Merlin Cat1 I have to admit I lost the will too when looking last night! There seemed to be imperial reducers or imperial to metric straight converters but nothing that did both. In the end I've ordered an imperial reducer 5/16 to 1/4" to see if that will do the trick with an 8mm olive and some hawk white paste. (Should I really be admitting to this to a proper plumber??!) If it's not working, could I rifle through your Spanish spares please The oven is the short copper pipe from the left, the fridge is the longer copper from the bottom, and the grill / hob is the rubber hose (should it be copper? It has a rubber hose connector as standard on the back of it)
If you could find a man with a lathe (local modeller club?) and an offcut of brass its easy to make adaptors to any size you want. Or you could make a jig to reduce the diameter - clamp 2 bits of steel or aluminium bar (say 10mm thick) together (eg with mole grips or vice) drill a 6.0mm diameter hole down the join line so half the circle forms in each of the two bits of metal. Sandwich your 1/4" pipe between the 2 halves and clamp the grips/vice shut again. You might need to do this a few times rotating your tube a bit each time. and smooth off any high spots before fitting the olive. Also best to anneal the copper first to make it soft (get it red hot then dunk in cold water). Bob
