# Hanging pipe



## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

I have done it professionally but now I am a plumber.


Another term for plumber is pipe fitter. Some don't know how to properly fit pipes into spaces. That is when disaster strikes. The hot pipe pictured has a longer wear pattern, it was under the cold crossways. Every time the hot would expand and contract it would gently but firmly stroke the cold pipe. The milford hanger on the cold had failed at the joint between the strap and the clip as usual. This allowed the cold to fall onto the hot.



I almost never see isolation between copper coated steel hangers and copper pipe. I do however, constantly find cold pipes with failed milford hangers. Isolation is very important. I usually use electrical tape or if it must look nice/vintage, a strip of cotton cloth. The isolation limits heat transfer and galvanic reaction. Condensation and corrosion are the by products of neglect. The weakest part of a milford hanger is the strap/clip connection.


I find the coolest part to be the lack of evidence on the inside of the pipe. That side view represents the thickness of the wall of this L copper. Four couplings and a *BELL* hanger with some electrical tape and I was good to go. I much prefer bell hangers.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

there are a whole crap load of plastic pipe hangers for copper, solves all your problems....wrapping electrical tape is amateur hour if you ask me and you waste a ton of time doing it...


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> there are a whole crap load of plastic pipe hangers for copper, solves all your problems....wrapping electrical tape is amateur hour if you ask me and you waste a ton of time doing it...





Plastic hangers get brittle and crack. The electrical tape just takes a moment.


You must remember, I do almost all service so at most I am using like 10 hangers. I'm not piping a whole house, just replacing a filter housing or adding a hose bibb etc....




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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

skoronesa said:


> Plastic hangers get brittle and crack. The electrical tape just takes a moment.
> 
> 
> You must remember, I do almost all service so at most I am using like 10 hangers. I'm not piping a whole house, just replacing a filter housing or adding a hose bibb etc....
> ...


gotcha, I have used thousands of plastic pipe clamps/hangers and never had one fail, they dont get brittle or crack...maybe if they are exposed to the sun for their life it would be short, but sealed in walls or basements the plastic doesnt break down...no corrosion, no chemical reaction with the copper, no pipe noises as they allow the pipe to slide as the copper expands, ..electrical tape on hot water pipes gets soft and can get pushed out of the clamp after a few dozen heat and cool cycles...unless you wrap the clamp itself, but if you only use a few get plastic clad metal clamps then...


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> gotcha, I have used thousands of plastic pipe clamps/hangers and never had one fail, they dont get brittle or crack...maybe if they are exposed to the sun for their life it would be short, but sealed in walls or basements the plastic doesnt break down...no corrosion, no chemical reaction with the copper, no pipe noises as they allow the pipe to slide as the copper expands, ..electrical tape on hot water pipes gets soft and can get pushed out of the clamp after a few dozen heat and cool cycles...unless you wrap the clamp itself, but if you only use a few get plastic clad metal clamps then...



I am sure most of the breakage I see is other people(sparkies, if you can call them people) Pulling or hanging stuff off the pipes. But I have seen mickeys, pvc j hooks, and most recently tube talons crack. The tube talons surprised me because they are polyethylene, a plastic which I have never seen be brittle. It is what pex pipe is made from. But just this past monday I was at a house where the 3/4" pvc vent for the regulator was "hung" with four tube talons. All of them broken and the pvc bowed like abs. It was sitting on the last nail in line for the last broken tube talon.


I prefer metal hangers, reasonable or not. I think it looks better or at least fits in with the old houses here. Most customers are wary of plastic for one reason or another anyway. I don't think I could bend copper and hang it with plastic. But you are correct, performance wise plastic is probably better and surely does crack less often than metal rusts apart.








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## quotable (Apr 19, 2019)

Copper pipe should be supported at 4' intervals on a straight run and within 1 foot of a major change in direction. 
It can be supported by preformed copper pipe hangers, copper wire hangers, copper strapping or holes through structural wood framing members. 
Copper pipe MAY NOT be support by steel pipe hangers, steel wire pipe hangers or steel strapping. 
All pipe should be mounted in a manner that will permit slight linear movement from thermal expansion or other stresses.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

quotable said:


> Copper pipe should be supported at 4' intervals on a straight run and within 1 foot of a major change in direction.
> It can be supported by preformed copper pipe hangers, copper wire hangers, copper strapping or holes through structural wood framing members.
> Copper pipe MAY NOT be support by steel pipe hangers, steel wire pipe hangers or steel strapping.
> All pipe should be mounted in a manner that will permit slight linear movement from thermal expansion or other stresses.


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