Nipple (plumbing) - Plumbing Terms

In plumbing and piping, a nipple is a fitting, consisting of a short piece of pipe, usually provided with a male pipe thread at each end, for connecting two other fittings.

The length of the nipple is usually specified by the overall length with threads. It may have a hexagonal section in the center for wrench to grasp (sometimes referred to as a "hex nipple"), or it may simply be made from a short piece of pipe (sometimes referred to as a "barrel nipple" or "pipe nipple"). A "close nipple" has no unthreaded area; when screwed tightly between two female fittings, very little of the nipple remains exposed. A close nipple can only be unscrewed by gripping one threaded end with a pipe wrench which will damage the threads and necessitate replacing the nipple, or by using a specialty tool known as a nipple wrench (or known as an internal pipe wrench) which grips the inside of the pipe, leaving the threads undamaged. When the ends are of two different sizes it is called a reducer or unequal nipple.

Threads used on nipples are BSP, BSPT, NPT, NPSM and Metric.