We love norms and standards. Don't we? Everything is standardized. If you follow all the norms, you won't have any problems. Is your workplace set up properly? Are the power outlets installed correctly? Does your toothbrush work as expected? Is the distance between the grates of the barbecue grill a maximum of 20mm? Well then, everything is fine!
There are many useful and useless standards. Especially in house construction, when it comes to electrical, water and heating installations, it is great to be able to rely on standards. This way, you can roughly guess where cables are laid, be sure that pipes are made of materials that don't slowly kill you and that you can buy a new radiator without having to worry about the fitting size.
What? It's not that easy? Standards can change?
That's exactly what I've just learned. Our heating system in the kitchen doesn't have a 3/4 inch or 1/2 inch connection, as is normal in Germany these days, but an old 5/8 inch connection. And that's simply no longer standard these days. There are no radiators with this thread size, no adapters, no blind plugs... Nothing!
In theory, we would have to have new pipes laid to have a standard fitting.
Fortunately, however, there is the beer tapping industry. They have the same problem with the fittings for their CO2 tanks. And since beer tapping systems are more important to us than heating systems, you can find a suitable adapter ring in specialized shops selling beer tapping supplies.
That kind of blew my mind. When I looked around online, I found out that I am not the only one with this issue. How is this not an adapter you can buy in every hardware store?
Anyway, I am happy I don't have to pull new pipes through my walls or fall back to even worse hacks.
The only question remaining: Do I now have to fill our heating system with beer instead of water?
