A standard elbow is female on both ends and needs a nipple to connect to another fitting; a street ell skips the nipple, saving space and one joint. Plumbers, fitters and HVAC techs use them to turn tight corners at valves, traps and gauges. The name is shop talk: catalogs list them as street elbows.
Heard on the job
No room for a nipple behind the boiler, put a street ell right off the valve and come up from there.
Also heard as
- street elbow
- street 90
- street 45
Related terms
Elbow
A fitting that changes the direction of a pipe run, usually by 90 or 45 degrees.
Nipple
A short length of pipe, threaded or plain on its ends, used to connect two fittings or a valve to a fitting.
Close nipple
The shortest threaded nipple made, threaded along its whole length with no plain section in the middle.