# broke my Pro-Press cherry



## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

We had to tie into a 2" domestic main about 35' up at a bottle making plant. To do this, meant shutting off water to the whole building, plant and offices, so time was crucial. Some pipefitters working there for a different contractor were using a pro-press on some process lines. I knew one of the fitters, he had worked for my boss' mechanical shop, and asked if we could borrow the pro-press. We sweat a 3/4" valve onto a piece of 3/4" L and pressed that into the tee on the ground. Went up in the lift and used a tubing cutter to cit the copper, reamed it, and then chamfered the end, marked the depth on the ends of the pipe, slipped the tee on and pressed it. We captured 2 five gallon buckets of water on the lift and about a gallon splashed on the floor. It's an FDA inspected facility, so making a little mess as possible was a big deal. The 3/4" branch was doglegged, but aside from that, I was pretty impressed. 
I do a lot of heavy industrial work where fire watches are needed, so I am thinking of trying to talk my boss into buying one. It would save a lot on labor. The fittings are high, but the labor savings would probably offset that.


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## 504Plumber (Jan 26, 2011)

Pro press is good for small jobs, pro press a big job and you will hate it, 3/4 pro press 90 and st. 90 don't even fit in a 2x4 wall...

I like the one we have for jobs that you can't shut the water off enough to solder or clean the copper enough.


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)

I just got my RP210 B on Friday. I can't wait to try it out.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

nice title

Ive done alot of jobs using pp, its quick and easy 

Some of the tools are large and quite heavy which makes it tough to get into the right spot sometimes, upper body strength is a must


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

Coolest thing I have ever seen in regards to PP is the soil pipe snap cutter attachment. What a time saver!


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## Greenguy (Jan 22, 2011)

On the construction side I can give a 5 minute demo to a kid off the street and know that he will be fine doing copper lines. try taking a guy off the street and get him doing soldering. 

But from the service side knowing I repair the lines when the valves are passing is wicked, huge savings in labour costs.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

It does have it's place.... There was almost a quarter pipe running the whole time. Valves wouldn't hold. Crimped on 2 4" PP flanges, and had the valves on and the water on in less than an hour before a blade even touched the pipe.....


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

GREENPLUM said:


> nice title
> 
> Ive done alot of jobs using pp, its quick and easy
> 
> Some of the tools are large and quite heavy which makes it tough to get into the right spot sometimes, upper body strength is a must


My current partner is about 5'-10", 150 pounds. There have been several times when he was leaning into a 24 or 36 pipewrench and it ain't budging. I let him struggle, for a couple minutes, then say, "move over, time for somebody with some arse." I have never failed, because now my pride is on the line, and I have got upper and lower body strength, it's buried under flab now, but still there. Most women, ain't got the arse.


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

422 plumber said:


> ... Most women, ain't got the arse....


Wrong thread Jibex... I believe the current outlet for Chauvanism is located in introductions...


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## timplmbr (Mar 16, 2011)

i use mine when i cant get all the water out of a line or when i cannot safely solder a joint in a wall , i think there the best thing since sliced bread...lol


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## easttexasplumb (Oct 13, 2010)

Airgap said:


> It does have it's place.... There was almost a quarter pipe running the whole time. Valves wouldn't hold. Crimped on 2 4" PP flanges, and had the valves on and the water on in less than an hour before a blade even touched the pipe.....


 

Thats why they need to make 4" Sharkbites. :whistling2:


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

U666A said:


> Wrong thread Jibex... I believe the current outlet for Chauvanism is located in introductions...


I don't think truth is chauvinism. It's a simple fact, on average, men are stronger than women.


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Pro Pressed a 4in valve in the other night on a shut down, actually it was two couplings, we went ahead a sweat up a 4x2 tee.

It worth it's weight in gold.... The only problem we have run into is the supply house or us ordering the wrong fittings for our type of machine. We have the xl-c jaws and the v2 actuator


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

422 plumber said:


> I don't think truth is chauvinism. It's a simple fact, on average, men are stronger than women.


Man... You are living in the past...

My parents and friends poke fun at me saying I'm stuck in the 50's because of the demands I make of my wife.

That being said, she is an equal party of my family unit, and is just as strongas I am, and sometimes stronger in certain capacities.

Women are no longer the weaker sex, Jibex, wake up!


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)

*Finally!!!*

Got the call last night, frozen & burst pipe to hose bibb:thumbup::thumbup:

It was in a long crawlspace. It took about 10 minutes. 

I think I like it for certain circumstances. The long radius of the fittings allowed me to not use any couplings when replacing the close rough copper fittings.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

my wife would not be able to propress a 2" joint 35' up in the air.


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

Sorry airgap, PROPRESS ROCKS!!!

Lol


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

How about we keep this thread on topic.....:thumbup:


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

I have a job coming up where I need to buy one of these. A galvanized pipe demo and replace with copper at a power plant.


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## roving plumber (Apr 25, 2011)

*pro press*

I too recently learned the way of the pro press...didn't think much of [email protected] first coming from a shop where we did all sweat copper (we held out on pex as long as we could) the piping we presses was anywhere from 3/4 to 3" in a huge shop on trapeeze so fittings were easy to get to.I was surprised how much influence crimping couplings could have on long runs of pipe. All in all I think its typically faster than sweating especially the bigger fittings and the aspect of working on pipe you can't completely drain down..downside would be availability of [email protected] most wholesale shops, exposed piping hard to keep true and once you pull the trigger that fitting is done


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

422 plumber said:


> my wife would not be able to propress a 2" joint 35' up in the air.


 




My wife can't push the lawn-mower!..:laughing: She weighed 119 lbs. when she was 9 mos. pregnant.

There's a reason why the NY Giants have never signed a woman to play on their team...:whistling2:


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