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Repairing a Capillary Joint

The usual the reason for a capillary fitting to leak is due to poor soldering when the joint was made. Most likely the copper pipes and fitting were not correctly cleaned with steel wool or emery paper and coated with flux before being soldered. It could also have been due to there not being enough heat to melt the solder properly. You can try and fix this by draining the water from the pipe, heating the pipe with a blow-torch, and then 'sweating' in some more solder. If this doesn't work you'll have to disassemble the joint and remake it.

Disassembling the joint

Drain the water from the pipe and wrap a damp cloth round nearby joints to stop them being melted by the heat. Play the flame of the blow-torch over the fitting and pipe until the solder begins to run from the joint. At this stage you can pull the pipe ends out of the sockets (wear thick gloves to stop getting burned). You can now reuse the fitting as an end feed joint or replace it with a new integral ring capillary connection.

Reusing the fitting

If you are going to reuse the fitting you need to carefully clean the interior surface and the pipe ends (where they will go inside the fitting) with steel wool or emery paper until they are shiny, and then coat them with flux. Push the end of the pipes into the sockets. Apply the blow-torch to heat the joint and then feed solder into the joint. The joint is complete when you see a bright ring of solder all round the mouth of the fitting.

Using a new integral ring capillary fitting

If you are going to use a new integral ring fitting you need to carefully clean the interior surface and the pipe ends (where they will go inside the fitting) with steel wool or emery paper until they are shiny and then coat them with flux. Push the end of the pipes into the sockets. Apply the blow-torch to melt the solder which is inside the fitting. The joint is complete when you see a bright ring of solder all round the mouth of the fitting.