fittings for 3/8 od copper tube

[de5m0mike]

I have two 20 ft. sections of 3/8 outer diameter copper tubing that my father donated to me that I'd like to convert into a wort chiller. Mendards didn't have anything other than a few different compression fittings to fit that size tube. I'd rather solder the fittings. Anyone know if there is anywhere online I can get the correct size fittings. I'm mostly just looking for some 90º elbows but if I could find a nice selection of fittings I could probably make us something pretty sweet.

 

[lschiavo]

I can't suggest an online source but I was able to find sweat 90's for my 3/8 tubing at the hardware store. I just brought in a small piece to test fit. They also had reducer couplings so I could adapt to 1/2 fittings.

 

[Walker]

Lowe's and HomeDepot have fittings for that size tubing; tee's, couplings, reducer couplings, elbow's, etc, etc.

 

[de5m0mike]

I'll check home Depot and Lowe's to make sure but Menards did have a pretty good selection. They had lots of fittings for 3/8 tube, but that size tube is based on the inner diameter of the tube. What I have is slightly smaller. It has an outer diameter of 3/8, which means it's just a little too small to fit. I was hoping to maybe find a specialty source somewhere online that might carry more options than the local hardware store.

 

[Bobby_M]

You're looking for 1/4" sweat fittings which is the nominal ID of 3/8" OD tubing.

 

[Walker]

Fittings are always marked by ID and pipes by OD.

A 3/8" tube (OD) will fit into a 3/8" fitting (ID).

 

[Walker]

You're looking for 1/4" sweat fittings which is the nominal ID of 3/8" OD tubing.

Ahh... he's trying to solder fittings INTO the tubes rather than ONTO the tubes?

I guess I missed that part.

edit: or is my head up my ass today and I have everything backward?

 

[de5m0mike]

Ahh... he's trying to solder fittings INTO the tubes rather than ONTO the tubes?

I guess I missed that part.

edit: or is my head up my ass today and I have everything backward?

I'm not sure which way is the correct either. All I know is the box the tube came in say 3/8 OD and the sweat fittings that they had labeled as 3/8, were all too big to fit over the outside of the tube I had. I imagine 1/4 fittings would have worked but they didn't have anything smaller than 3/8, except for a couple compression fittings.

 

[Bobby_M]

Try this.
1/2" rigid copper tubing is 5/8" OD, the fittings for this are labelled as 1/2".
1/2" refrigeration tubing is actually 1/2" OD, so it needs 3/8" fittings.
3/8" OD tubing needs 1/4" fittings and so on.

 

[lschiavo]

Try this.
1/2" rigid copper tubing is 5/8" OD, the fittings for this are labelled as 1/2".
1/2" refrigeration tubing is actually 1/2" OD, so it needs 3/8" fittings.
3/8" OD tubing needs 1/4" fittings and so on.

Gotta love that system! It's all so simple

 

[BigJason]

I stopped at Home Depot today to get some 3/8" sweat fittings, and all they had were 3/8" caps and 3/8" couplings... nothing else. The guy there told me that HD is phasing out the 3/8" stuff.

 

[glenn514]

A few months back, I scored TWO packages of 20' by 3/8" copper REFRIGERATION tubing. The fella at the HD I visited said to get your fittings from a HVAC contractor. Well, a good friend of mine is in the HVAC business, so I just asked him to get me the fittings, and I'd pay for them. Bingo! Made myself a 30' long immersion chiller for under $50.00, and kept about 10' for some other project.

glenn514

 

[Walker]

I stopped at Home Depot today to get some 3/8" sweat fittings, and all they had were 3/8" caps and 3/8" couplings... nothing else. The guy there told me that HD is phasing out the 3/8" stuff.

That explains the large number of empty slots I saw on the shelf when I was in to buy some 1/2" stuff.....

 

[powerslave73]

Just use compression fittings and sweat them on. That's what I did and it worked fine.

 

[de5m0mike]

A few months back, I scored TWO packages of 20' by 3/8" copper REFRIGERATION tubing. The fella at the HD I visited said to get your fittings from a HVAC contractor. Well, a good friend of mine is in the HVAC business, so I just asked him to get me the fittings, and I'd pay for them. Bingo! Made myself a 30' long immersion chiller for under $50.00, and kept about 10' for some other project.

glenn514

I just so happen to have a guy coming out to the house on Wednesday to put in an AC unit. Maybe I'll try to get some from him.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

I couldn't find any 3/8 fittings locally except 1/2 to 3/8 reducing sleeves at the local Menards. Couldn't find even these at Lowes or Home Depot. I ended up getting some from McMaster Carr
http://www.mcmaster.com/#copper-tube-fittings/=71byro
Not as handy as the local stores, but it's hard to come up with something they don't stock.

 

[bendavanza]

Look for a REAL plumbing supply shop, rather than a big box "sells everything" hardware store.

 

[Bobby_M]

The most concerning development is how much regular sweat fitting shelf realestate they keep giving up to the "easy" push to connect and other gimmicky fittings that cost 3x as much. My neighbor had to replace like 12 ball valves around the basement and got $13 sharkbites so he didn't have to solder. It's a tragedy that we're allowed to graduate high school without knowing how to sweat pipe and drive a stick shift.

 

[de5m0mike]

I couldn't find any 3/8 fittings locally except 1/2 to 3/8 reducing sleeves at the local Menards. Couldn't find even these at Lowes or Home Depot. I ended up getting some from McMaster Carr
http://www.mcmaster.com/#copper-tube-fittings/=71byro
Not as handy as the local stores, but it's hard to come up with something they don't stock.

I'm going to try one more hardware store and if that doesn't work out, I think mcmaster looks like a good solution. Thanks for the link.

Now I just need to finish planning out my wort chiller design.

 

[bendavanza]

The most concerning development is how much regular sweat fitting shelf realestate they keep giving up to the "easy" push to connect and other gimmicky fittings that cost 3x as much. My neighbor had to replace like 12 ball valves around the basement and got $13 sharkbites so he didn't have to solder. It's a tragedy that we're allowed to graduate high school without knowing how to sweat pipe and drive a stick shift.

AMEN, brother!
I also think you should have to learn to ride a motorcycle before you can drive a car.

 

[de5m0mike]

Found some tonight hidden in the back of a box at one of the smaller hardware stores in town. I think I might have bought the last ones. We'll see if they get any more in or not.

 

[SteveO44]

nm