How to remove pipe olives from copper pipe 

You presented that so well. If you give up the plumbing you could get a job on TV. Lovely easy, no hassle way of showing how the job should be done with a lovely presentational mannerism. Well done!

Just bought an olive puller because of this video. Worked like a dream. Thank you!

I agree with one of the other comments here - You're a natural Television. Well explained - covered all the options and well told.

Wow! Just used one of these for the first time after watching your video Al. I wouldn't have known otherwise. Worked perfectly just as you demonstrated. If there was a bafta style award for best RU-vid channel for Diy, you would be the winner in my opinion. Thank you!!

Great video. Dug me out of a deep hole after plumber vacated the job and left me with a host of problems. The Olive extractor works like a dream. Thankyou

Thank you so much for that. I'm fixing a leaking pipe and have got to that stage. Dead end. Thank you thank you. You have saved me wasting my whole day.

I just bought an olive puller from ebay - you are a lifesaver!!!

Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for. Didn't know it existed! Thought the project was a dead end until I've seen this Thankyou so much

Thanks. I didn't have an olive puller but a few washers inside an old fitting did the same job.

Great but if kit... I do a lot of property renovations as my day job and I keep meaning to get one of these! (Clicks onto screwfix now). Just wanna take this moment to say thanks for all your content. Quick and straight to the point... no messing about with half hour videos etc with paid promotions etc. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble maybe you wouldn’t mind telling us, your subscribers a little bit about your history in the trade and how you came to be a plumber etc? You seem to have a lot of knowledge and experience in what you do! Thanks again Al! Marc .

Thank you!! Been scratching my head wondering how to get them off! Just bought that olive puller

Thanks, bought Oliver puller from your Amazon page. Saves me making a bigger mess when attempting to removing toilet to then cap off for floor fitters.

This was a brilliant video! Explained in a nice and clear way, thank you for taking the time to make the video and for sharing your knowledge, really helpful! Thank you 👍 😊

Brilliant . Thanks after spending half an hour trying to remove 1 olive I had 4 to remove saw this went out and bought the pulling tool job done 👍

Never seen one of those, good piece of kit, and thanks for the super instruction. Peace be unto you.

I've always wanted one of these for microbore but I have never found one! Great video as always 👍

My favourite (plumbing😀) channel.

1st method worked for me, great job!

Many thanks, wanted to anticipate the problem before I started!

Good stuff as always! I love the olive puller, and another user has commented about the olive cutter you can buy, again great tool but as mentioned you have to get it square or you can nick the pipe. I also find you can remove an olive with a set of grips, especially on recently fitted compression fittings, space allowing as always

What a great tool! There is a similar tool in bike mechanics called a crank puller for getting chainweels off a square taper bottom bracket. Thanks. I will invest in one of them.

Great, as always ! You’re in your way to 100k subs too! Well deserved!

A fourth option is to gently and carefully grind through the olive/ferrule/compression ring with a Dremel tool fitted with a small tungsten carbide burr. It's about as risky as using a hacksaw, but I did so today and it worked.

Very good videos. Have learned a lot from them.

Bought one from screw fix after watching this. Didn’t know that existed handy tool

You made a hard job look easy ... thanks for the demo and info.

Wow one of life’s problems solved. That gadget is awesome, thanks 😊😊

Thanks, the whack it along technique worked a treat!

Don't mess with this guy he's got a tool for everything

Tap tap worked a dream, thanks very much x

i have seen olive splitters but never heard of an olive puller, neat bit of kit.

Brilliant worked first time cheers

You can also just use mole/vice grips or anything with teeth on and just grip the olive lightly and turn it to and fro as you ease it off the end of the pipe.

Thank you for the lesson

Thanks you just saved my bacon !

Great little tool I've got the one from Monument which comes with a hex bit at the top so you can attach your drill

Hi Al your looking good hope things are going good for you. nice video

this reminds me if David Attenborough narrating a diy ! nice mate,

Nice one Al 👍 splitters are great too

With this Olive Puller have you ever experienced the stuck olive/ferrule/compression ring actually shave down or compress the copper pipe (changing it's O.D. outer diameter) as it is being mechanically pulled off with each turn of the tool? This just happened to me. First time I used the tool. My tool does not have the metal rod at the end as a handle to turn the screw by hand...that would have broken in my situation but more likely a human would not have been able to turn it by hand, even just a quarter turn. Mine has a large bolt head at the end where your handle is. I used a 10 inch crescent wrench/spanner for turning or screwing. Immediately, each turn of the end nut rotated everything including the compression nut. I had to hold the Nut on one end of the tool with another wrench while I turned the tightening screw nut at the other end of the tool with my 10" Crescent wrench. It took all my strength (was worried about bending the pipe or breaking something), working in a very tight area. It took about 20 minutes of time to complete the removal at 1/8 th turn of the screw with each effort before repositioning the wrench. The high effort with the first pull of the wrench stayed constant all the until the last pull when it popped off. Eventually I did get the olive/ferrule off but it changed the OD of the copper pipe such that after attaching a new shut off valve with a new olive, even when tightened down full, I could slide the new shut off valve off and on the copper supply pipe (original 5/8" OD, 1/2" ID) by hand with no resistance. I couldn't really find any shavings of copper. The puller and old brass olive acted like an extruder reducing the OD of the pipe it passed over when being mechanically removed. It all seemed so wrong while I was doing this due to the physical effort required but the tool is simple, one cannot screw it up....or can I? Do you have any idea what I was doing wrong or what might have gone wrong with the tool or materials? I'm in the USA, Phoenix, AZ. House was built 20 years ago. Apparently there was a change around the time my house was built re: the composition of copper pipe or wall thickness? but due to the color of my pipe another source said I had the old style pipe....the good stuff and not the new cheaper copper pipe. The olive puller I used is described on the following RU-vid channel name - --- seejanedrill ----- video title 'how to remove a stuck ferrule from copper pipe in seconds". The tool I used is made by Dick English. English Tool Company, englishtoolco.com (website no longer comes up) While writing this I just came across a comment that said "if the original ferrule was overtightened when installed or over tightened after initial installation to stop a leak, what I just described above can happen with these tools. So the big question is, how do you know if the existing ferrule is "overtightened" when you try to remove it? Should this tool work with very light turning pressure and if it requires more than that you stop and got to Plan B for removing the olive/ferrule?

Great video. Really helped me out. Thank you.

Sweet tool, and great job showing how it works

A…. if you could choose the olive puller or cutter would would it be? Love the videos mate. Andy GBC.

Use a junior hacksaw but cut at an angle across the olive. Put the blade of a small screwdriver into the slot you have cut, one quick twist and the olive snaps. 30 years...no problems.

You can't beat the olive puller, another alternative if space is really tight, use a file again careful, you can file olive on other side just to weaken it so it opens out, hope that's useful to everybody, 🇬🇧👍.

Thanks for the tip. 🧰👍

Keep up these videos! Their great!😊

the olive is copper, right? filing it down shouldn't be too tedious, isn't it. that's the first thing that came to my mind, anyway.

First method worked for me. 👍🏽

I used a dremel perpendicular in lieu of the hacksaw. Where eye protection, And don't rush. You don't need to cut all the way through... just far enough to put a flathead in the cut, pry, and crack the olive at which point it will slide off.

You can also use the 2hammer tric. One under the ring firm against it and with the other you tick on the olive. Don't bang to hard. If you can turn all around the olive it's good. Or you can twist the olive around the pipe. No tools, Just skills.

I found 15 mm olive puller was great. But can’t get the 22mm one to work! What am I doing wrong. Can you do a video for 22mm olives

Great video as always

Genius, good man! Thank you, great site

There should be an attachment for a slide hammer. Then space is not a problem

Thank you friend. That helped me.

2:00 use a dremel cut off wheel to notch the ring (not pipe)

Hi, trying to remove radiator valve cover, but there isn’t a screw to undo. I don’t want to force it and can’t see how to remove it? Really enjoy your videos very helpful. Thanks.

Thank you very much

There is also a olive cutter, slide it over the Olive and squeeze the handles and it cuts the olive on both sides. A quicker alternative to the hacksaw (or dremmel) but I have to admit when I've used mine it has sometimes nicked the pipe too. Nothing has beaten my olive puller

Great video, a very handy thing to be aware or. Any chance you could do video on toilet flush handles that are pointing up instead of being horizontal. The old syphon type flusher? ? Thanks a million.

Is the copper pipe not too narrow now to accept a new olive and seal properly ???

Is there a tool to get compression reducer couplings off of 10mm microbore pipes? I dont have much pipe to work with, so really dont want to cut the pipe.

as always al a good video.

Got this problem, its an olive puller i need, saw is too risky like you say!!

Great videos. Could you make one of hissing noises on radiator TRVs when valves are closing and how to fix them?

You're the man

Outstanding! I knew there had to be tool!

Thanks so much!!!

Hi I need to move my olive about 1cm for a radiator would this work? Does it make it less air tight for the rad connection?

I used a hacksaw and only went so far. Then with a flat head screwdriver into the cut and turned it to break the olive. I'm no plumber but it's what I had on me at the time.

Great vid pal....

Just looking at a few videos about what I call "compression fittings" and the "feral" that creates the seal and gets stuck onto the pipe when removing an old one. Now here in the states we call it a compression fitting with a feral. Had to watch several videos before noticing the accent of those that call this fitting an "olive" fitting". Boy was I confused!!!

Looks like you would have to buy a tool for all pipe diameters though.

I don't need one , probably will never use one but feel the need to buy one for my toolkit - a bit like women and their shoes men and their speciality tools!

I only cut halfway through the olive ..put a flat screwdriver in the notch an snap it off

Hi is it possible that you can put another fitting over the olive and tighten with old nut

Life saver 👍

I've tried to install a new mixer shower but accidently tightened the nuts first causing some compression on the pipe. When I installed the new unit with the copper olives it came with, the cold side was weeping a tiny bit, I came back to it later and tried to nip it up, the slight tightening caused a full blown leak (I assume the olive moved to a section where the pipe was compressed and broke the seal). In a panic I fitted the old unit back on with the old brass olives and the nuts bottomed out, but have sealed. I've bought some PTFE and Water Hawk, but I assume neither will do the trick if the olive can't bite down adequetely? I'm also wondering, when using an olive puller on an overtightened olive, would the olive be strong enough to straighten out the pipe (assuming I'm strong enough)?

Can you use the olive puller on flexipipe?

Thanks 👍

Bro I just moved into a new house and it has a solid fuel central heating system with a lot of switches too so I guess it is electric and solid fuel. Its freezing any idea how to work it?

Hi al my house was built in the 1970s because of the shortage of copper they used polyorc on the cold water pipes .I've managed to get a copper compression to join to the smaller size but not for bigger pipe how would overcome this thanks alan

I got a olive splitter for 15mm pipe . My mums has 8mm narrow gauge copper pipe . Whats best for narrow gauge. Plz.

Wow thank you very much 👌

Hello I have a question when I turn my bath tub taps on I get very low flow in my bathroom sink taps when I have them running at the same time is there anyway I can solve this ??

Thank you

Monument olive cutter in my tool bag or a Rothenberger multi olive cutter 👍👍👍

Mine is stuck on both ends so I'm unable to replace the isolation valve any advice iv trey hack saw stressed out as no hot water coming cheers for any advise

So, the pipe can be reused?

Thanks - very helpful - Can you reuse the olive if replacing like for like (e.g., stop cock for stop cock) or stop cock to full bore valve?

Hi All. Can you tell me, does it cost the same amount to run a single radiator, to heat one room, or all five (in my case), on an oil fired central heating system. Ive been googling this recently and cant get a definitive answer. Thanks

Fantastic.

Nice one :)

You FORGOT that the pipe is connected to A WALL? A WALL WITH LITTLE CLEARANCE! I used a Dremel tool. A off it came.

Anyone know where to get a 1/2 inch version?

Perfect, I think lol , thanks 👍👍

Quality.

It’s more of a pipe pusher than an olive puller lol

I could have used that to get the wedding ring off my ex-wife's finger the day she filed for divorce.