Toilet Plumbing – Understanding the 11/16 OD Toilet Shut Off

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My house is 1920s, New England. its been upgraded and added onto a few times.

2nd floor toilet shut off was leaking.

I cut off the valve as I was unable to safely get a torch on it to un-solder it.

I shut off hot and cold water to the 2nd floor as the faucet and tub have mixing vales.

The supply ID is 1/2" so I got this 1/2 in. Nominal Compression Inlet x 3/8 in. O.D. Compression Outlet 1/4-Turn Angle Valve

To my horror, the OD of the pipe is 11/16 (maybe brass? older copper?)

As I understand, 1/2" copper is 5/8 OD so my part doesn't fit.

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What part(s) do I need to button this back up?

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Best Answer

Here is what I determined after some research

Some (many) people seemed to think that this was caused by water freezing in the pipe and expanding the tubing but others debunked that because it tends to split the pipe and there would be other evidence of the freezing. I also don't believe that it was a freeze cycle.

Pipe and tubing sizes were set in the early 1900's BUT apparently Westinghouse supplied an 11/16" pipe which was more commonly installed on the west coast but can also be found throughout the country. Some plumbing supply houses carried fittings through the 1980's until they were considered obsolete and unnecessary.

The problem was solved in a couple of ways:

  1. use a swage tool to sweg it out to receive a 1/2" pipe soldered on to it
  2. have couplers made out of copper stock on a lathe
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