Water – What material is this toilet water supply line

metal-cuttingpipetoiletvalvewater

Photos of my toilet water supply line, which is the part below the valve:

Based on the appearance, it only fits the description of galvanized iron (which is apparently the same as galvanized steel). However, based on numerous sources, galvanized steel has been mostly phased out in the 1960s, but my house was built in the 1990s (in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, if that matters).

I want to cut this pipe in order to install a quarter-turn valve with compression connections, but I am unable to find any close quarters tubing cutters that can cut galvanized iron/steel.

So my questions are:

  1. What material might the toilet water supply line be?
  2. Should I attempt to cut a galvanized iron/steel line with a cutter that is meant for everything but iron/steel (E.g. The Ridgid 40617 cutter states it is for "hard and soft copper, aluminum, brass and plastic tubing", but doesn't state iron/steel)?

Update 1
So, I scraped the back of the tubing with a file as one user suggested as shown here, and it appears to be copper. Also, a neodymium magnet was not attracted to it, as another user suggested in trying to do so.

Best Answer

That is either a painted or plated 1/2" copper line. If it is plated, the plating is failing or failed. Either way take a strip of emery cloth and clean it up before adding the compression fitting

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