The types of pipe fittings all exist to do one of five jobs: change direction, branch a line, change size, join or extend a run, or close it off. Once you can name which job a fitting does, choosing the right one stops being guesswork — an elbow turns a corner, a tee splits a flow, a reducer steps down a diameter, a coupling joins two lengths, and a cap ends the line. Everything else is a variation on those five.<\/p>\n
This guide walks every common fitting family, how each one connects, the materials they come in, and how to pick the right part for a job. It is written for the water and plumbing side rather than heavy industrial steel, so the examples lean toward PPR, PVC, CPVC and brass systems. For the wider material picture, the PPR pipe guide<\/a> covers pressure classes and installation; here we stay on the fittings.<\/p>\n\n\n