Toughts on Stainless Steel Pipes/plumbing

gerjzd1985

Hi All,

I was recently looking at a house I was interested in putting an offer on. However all the pipework to radiators / hot water tank are all stainless steel as opposed to copper. The house was build circa 1980 and this I believe is all original piping from that time.

How bad/good is stainless piping, is it something that will bring problems. Its worth noting most of the pipework is under concrete floors, so changing it if required would take a bit of work.

Anyone any experience/thought on the stainless piping, will it need replacing?

Many thanks

gifted

As far as i know and I'm open to correction but there was a shortage of copper around that time and stainless was used, the quality of stainless i can't comment on but was fairly common back then.

gerjzd1985

gifted wrote: »

As far as i know and I'm open to correction but there was a shortage of copper around that time and stainless was used, the quality of stainless i can't comment on but was fairly common back then.

Yes that makes sense thanks for that , just wondering bout the quality of it now

gifted

different grades of stainless out there but would imagine that the type used in house plumbing wouldn't have been the highest quality again i'm open to correction there. Get a plumber in to put a 3 bar pressure test on, see if it holds.

gerjzd1985

Thanks for that will just need to get a plumber to test the system and see what happens, cheers

scudo2

I've never came across bad stainless ( 29 years in plumbing ) but check fittings on pipes in hot press. It was harder to tighten fittings on stainless than copper. If there all corroded then it means your original plumber was weak. If there fine then you should be ok.

Dtp79

I know it's a bstard to work on and cut!!

scudo2

Try bending it with a spring around your knee.!!!! No wonder we all have *#%@* knee's.

Outkast_IRE

Have come across a few domestic stainless installations, and there was never any issues, seemed to me like high quality, and very tough pipe, its a bitch for blunting the blades on hacksaws, or a pipe slice sharpish.

nmacc

I'd echo everything the other guys said - especially about blunting the pipe slice.
Never seen any bad stainless and I've been using a length salvaged from a 70's house to hold up a tree in my back garden for about 7 years. I just checked it now out of interest and it's in perfect condition.

Dtp79

scudo2 wrote: »

Try bending it with a spring around your knee.!!!! No wonder we all have *#%@* knee's.

And backs too !

gerjzd1985

cheers thanks for all the advice greatly appreciated:D

sanbrafyffe

sure any of the house stainless is just copper coated in stainless:D,,im a plumber,never had a problem with it...im into the instrumentation side of things now,,,,we must be certified in swagelok now,in order to get that we must do an exam piece using e101 stainless,,when our piece for the exam is finished,bends pulled,fittings compressed etc,,it is then tested to 1100bar,,to pass the pipe must split first to pass,,if the fittings give you fail ,,then you cant go onto the oil and gas terminals lol

jimf

hi sanbrafyffe slightly off topic but can you refresh my ould brain on who manf those hp compressors again i used to work with a company years ago and was then into all this lp and hp compressed air as well as pneumatics and lp hydraulics compair reavell seems to ring a bell

Froststop

Caution is required here!!
That may not be stainless, aluminium was also used which could now be in danger of pin holes. I re-plumbed a house in Cork a few years back with this problem. They may have used stainless where visible and the alu pipe in ceilings and under the floor.
Are all the fittings metric or imperial? Check the attic and hot press where the alu may be visible.

Be careful here! I may be too late, hope not.