Originally Posted by jdr

You said no flow up the hill.

Originally Posted by fionamw

Ha de ha ha..... there was (I speculated) no flow towards the house from the point at which I checked both the mains pipe and the pipe from the depositos, which points are both further up the hill than the house.
However just to be pedantic, technically there are two points at which the water - mains to depositos and total supply to house - flows uphill anyway. Just not where I was talking about! Was that any clearer? Don't mention mud......

Originally Posted by bil.w

Here's a useful tip. If you need to cut out a piece of damaged copper pipe, (or when you need to break into a run to fit a spur) it can be very difficult to solder in a new piece, as you can't always pull the cut ends apart enough to slide in a new piece plus the two straight connectors.

Here's what you can do. Cut a piece of new tube that will fit the gap perfectly, less a bit for expansion. Prep the ends, plus the cut ends of the old pipe on the wall.

Normally the straight connectors have a restriction in the middle to stop them sliding to far over one end. Take a round file and remove this so the connectors will slide on un checked. Mark with a pencil on the two ends on the wall 1\2 the length of the connectors so as to show where the conns need to slide to. Flux all 4 ends and the inside of the two conns, slide the conns completely onto each end of the new tube, offer it up, slide the conns up to the pencil marks and solder as per normal.

Originally Posted by dunmovin

use compression fittings, easier by far, and if the pipe freezes again they tend to slip free be fore the pipe gets burst

Originally Posted by jdr

Have you tried getting them back on the expanded pipe though, you need to cut some off usually.