Plumbing Run Flexibility with Plumbing Fittings

Household plumbing needs to be flexible to accommodate just about all the pipe configurations and routings to meet the water and waste management specifications of any home construction project.

Plumbing can’t be done without fittings that connect piping and tubing sections of various shapes and sizes in different kitchen, bathroom and toilet environment, not to mention heating and air-conditioning, water purification as well as electrical, automotive and telecommunication conducting that employ similar plumbing materials to contain electrical wires.

Common Fittings Used

Across this host of applications, plumbing fittings generally make installation easy and flexible. Where before most of these fittings were made of metal, often lead, brass, steel, zinc or copper alloys which take on the same materials as used in the pipes themselves, you now have synthetic polyvinyl chloride or PVC pipes and other plastic pipes that also come with their matching set of PVC plumbing fittings that add to the complexity of choices.

Building standards and construction specification for homes meant to withstand earthquakes and last for generations often require the stronger brass and copper plumbing fixtures. These, of course, require the corresponding brass or copper plumbing fittings.

There are hundreds of special fittings widely used in various plumbing installations. Here are a few of the most common widely used fittings.

• Elbow – a fitting that allow a change 90degree or 45-degree change in plumbing run direction. There are short and long radius elbows that allow flexibility in their installation.
• Cap or Plug – a pipe fitting that, as the names suggest caps or plugs the ends or termination of a plumbing run. They are usually threaded that basically covers the ends like a bottle cap.
• Tee – this is used to either split or combine water flow that are either enlarging or reducing combination.

It is important that the right piping run is terminated for the required type of fitting to be attached which generally comes in three common connecting modes: Welding uses special soldering process; threading which allows matching between female and male terminations with a screw-like threading action to join; and socketing which simply allows them to be bolted in place.

A more recent method of connection uses push-in fittings that have made plumbing a lot easier to deploy while saving labor costs and improving reliability over traditional tube connections. They are relatively cheaper and require no special tools. You simply cut the tube and insert the fitting allowing secure and reliable connection.