Ridgid Propress

[yorkguy]

Has anybody tried it? Like or dislike? Does it save enough time to pay the extra cost? Any other info would be appreciated. Thank you.

[targetman]

I have used it with great success. My current employer has two for the shop.

[n-e-w Jerz!]

i worked for a plumber that had one of the original sets, the thing weighed a ton (it was like a .50 cal machine gun), long, and was tough to get around corners + tight area's. but we used the heck out of it, would hardly solder if we could help it.

years later, i now work for a mechanical contractor and have the battery operated version w/ swivel head. a large oil industry outfit we do work for wants us to use it exclusively for all copper installs for nitrogen, compressed air, propane, argon and water installations. we ran cooling tower lines without soldering once! it's a fantastic tool, now i see they have a li-on version.

plus, ridged guarantee's the fittings longer than the pipe!

the down fall of this is the price of copper and fittings, but you get done faster!

[krd]

The new one is battery operated,head swivels to put you in position. Helped our plumber install a new 2" valve on a main line that was constantly dripping, fix took all of about an hour install of all day.

[alexw]

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I have two model 100B Ridgid Propress battery powered devices.

They are great! I use them mostly for water heater tank/tankless changouts. An outstanding feature is that you don't have get everything dry for sweat soldering. :) :) :) :) :) :)

The only thing you must be careful of is to plan ahead so you can get the tool onto the fitting. If working in close quarters you need to be careful to do this. The alternative is SharkBite fittings which work well, can be opened and reused but do not keep pipe and/or fittings from twisting/turning.

There are used Propress's available from time to time on eBay at a great savings.







Has anybody tried it? Like or dislike? Does it save enough time to pay the extra cost? Any other info would be appreciated. Thank you.

[4jime]

I saw my first one the other day and I was impressed. I can see how it would be a life saver in tight spaces and around combustable materials.

[yorkguy]

Thanks for all of your input guys. I'm excited to hear that everyone seems to love the tool. I'm going to give it a try on a job in a couple weeks. My salesman is going to borrow me the tool for free for the first job. I do a lot of hydronic so I'll probably end up buying one if everything goes as well as it sounds like it will.

[TCreacy]

The Plumbers on a multi million dollar commercial job, where given 3 of these presses (which brand I dont know) In exchange for the fact that the entire job was being doing with there press fittings

[nick0danger]

Just remember that when you start it the will straighten itself out and squash your arm against a wall or T bar grid.

[hvacbear]

They are great for pipe that is leaking.

[rojacman]

Has anybody tried it? Like or dislike? Does it save enough time to pay the extra cost? Any other info would be appreciated. Thank you.
i haven't but just read an article in one of the trade newspapers about a large contractor on a big job that piped in all the tubing that way and brought the job in 1/2 the time w/no leaks for an early comletion of the job. he's smiling!! Jack

[kampkook]

Used several on a major project in 2004/2005. So far no leaks. Saved a bunch of time and money, even with the cost of the fittings. That was when copper first spiked. Labor savings offset material costs. If the cost of copper hadnt stayed up, would have profited a lot more.

We are still using sweats...Propress has its place.

Biggest loser is once its on its on, if the head fails or the fitting gets cocked, a lot of pipe gets trashed, and it dont look as pretty before the insulation goes on.

[neophytes serendipity]

Has anybody tried it? Like or dislike? Does it save enough time to pay the extra cost? Any other info would be appreciated. Thank you.

I know the battery powered unit that uses the Makita nicad/nimh batteries won't work well in the cold. Not enough power from the battery, so the telltale green light won't come on when the crimp is done.

If the unit has been updated with LiIon batteries, then cold weather performance will really suck.

A pipefitting contractor I worked for liked the unit for pipe 1.5" and up. Smaller stuff was still faster to sweat.

I personally don't trust the longevity of the fittings with the O ring inside... but I guess the job will last long enough for the standard 1 year warranty...

Will RIDGID cover labor repairs with their product if the O rings fail.. or will they just give you a new fitting and say lots of luck?

[flange]

This process is starting to be specified more and more as end users realize the benefits. A school district around here is aggressively removing old four pipe systems and going to geothermal with vertical wells. They will only allow propress on any copper fitting. Their reasoning is time savings. The schedule for changing a school over runs about ten weeks, with three weeks allowed on either side of that working nights only. These are not small schools, and usually entail removal of a couple medium sized boilers 150-200 horsepower range, chillers towers etc. THe first school that was done ran late usuing traditional methods. They have found that using propress helps to speed to piping install dramatically, and for about the same overall cost structure. You really are trading labor for materials at almost one to one, but the time savings makes up for it by getting jobs done faster, with no leaks. The upside is that payment usually comes quicker as the job timetables are shortened.

[neophytes serendipity]

Yeah, the initial install is completed faster, but in a long term environment outside of retail tenant spaces, what is the long term life expectancy of the ProPress fittings?

Is the 50 year guarantee worth more than the paper it is printed on? I bet there is a weasel clause in there somewhere.

Time will tell, I guess.

[yorkguy]

I know the battery powered unit that uses the Makita nicad/nimh batteries won't work well in the cold. Not enough power from the battery, so the telltale green light won't come on when the crimp is done.

If the unit has been updated with LiIon batteries, then cold weather performance will really suck.

A pipefitting contractor I worked for liked the unit for pipe 1.5" and up. Smaller stuff was still faster to sweat.

I personally don't trust the longevity of the fittings with the O ring inside... but I guess the job will last long enough for the standard 1 year warranty...

Will RIDGID cover labor repairs with their product if the O rings fail.. or will they just give you a new fitting and say lots of luck?

That's interesting too hear, I have been wondering if the battery powered unit would be good or not, I never thought about cold weather performance, and here in MN that's important since the jobsites are often very cold until we get the heat hooked up. Thanks for mentioning that.

[neophytes serendipity]

That's interesting too hear, I have been wondering if the battery powered unit would be good or not, I never thought about cold weather performance, and here in MN that's important since the jobsites are often very cold until we get the heat hooked up. Thanks for mentioning that.

There were many days where the fitters just did the pipe runs and crimped the joints later. The portable unit would only work for a short time after it was warmed up. I didn't pay attention to the cutoff temperature... but there was a lot of complaining.

They had a system where the assembled joints were marked with one color of electrical tape, and the crimped joints were re-marked with another color. The company tried to assign crews to a portion of the piping, and they had their own colors to help with accountability.

I don't really know how much time is saved going up at the piping twice in this case, or if the job was speced for the ProPress system.

The GC on this particular job was really bad with jobsite conditions, and only one portion of the job ever had temp heat. Their trailers were nice, though.