Advantages of our Stainless Steel Piping and Crimp Fittings

Stainless steel is typically considered an expensive solution for potable water, however the benefits of stainless steel in terms of longevity, quality, installation and maintenance needs show that it is a comparative solution. Most plumbers are not comfortable with working with stainless because of unfamiliarity with the product and therefor tend to avoid it. But working with the Stainless Crimplink press fit piping and tubing is like working with a lego set. Easy to assemble and join. This is similar to Geberit Mapress in case you are familiar with that.

Design criteria

When designing a plumbing system historically, architects and engineers generally worked on the old standards developed when galvanized and black mild steel piping were in fashion.

Subsequently copper tubing became very popular, with good flow characteristics, relatively easy and quick to install. Design criteria improved, as dimensions were slightly smaller, but flow and pressure losses were not negatively affected. The major problem has become theft from site of copper with the attendant losses of wasted labour and water losses and downtime in bringing in more stock.

With the introduction of plastic piping, wall thicknesses were increased to handle the same pressure. External diameters were increased to accommodate this, or internal diameters were reduced. What really impacts system design was that the fittings in many cases, had significantly reduced internal bores. Therefore, in an installation with a relatively high incidence where tees and other fittings are required, this has an impact on pressure and flow losses.

Here the stainless steel uses thin wall tubing, and the crimp-on fittings can comfortably handle higher pressures without affecting wall thicknesses. Also, the same internal bore of the tubing is maintained with the fittings. The flared-end design of the fittings allows the tube to be inserted in the fitting. An O ring is situated at the ends of the fittings. The fitting  is then hydraulically deformed onto the tube to give a consistently reliable, leak free, mechanically strong joint. This also maintains excellent flow characteristics.

This is an incredibly rapid process providing a permanent, guaranteed leak-free joint rated at a pressure of 16-bar, with all the benefits that stainless steel provides. Pipe sizes are available from a 15mm diameter to 108mm diameter. As a pipe reticulation system, it is highly user and installer friendly, hugely time saving, and resultantly cost-effective which tick all of the boxes when efficiency is required. This cuts installation time to about 30% to 40 % of conventional systems.

A hidden benefit.

A hidden benefit for long suffering plumbers on site, where other contractors damage the piping that has been installed to make way for what they are wanting to install without a care for the damage that they cause.

 All piping had been installed and plastered over when some other contractor came along wanting to put up cupboards. Without a care in the world they promptly started drilling where they wanted to mount their cupboards. Only problem was there masonry drill bit wasn`t going where it should have and kept on veering off direction. They subsequently found that the plumber had installed stainless tubing in that position and their drill would not penetrate this pipe as the case would have been with copper or plastic. They had to drill elsewhere. One up for the plumber.

Writted by: Arius Wantenaar