The Brand Story
Mueller: The Port Huron Brass Works Behind America's Copper Plumbing
Hieronymus Mueller came to the United States in 1852, a 20-year-old immigrant with a talent for metal. He built a business around brass, and the family company that carried his name kept growing after him. On December 17, 1917, a new forging plant opened in Port Huron, Michigan, and the business was reincorporated as Mueller Metals Company. The plant would become the home of a fitting that quietly changed how American buildings move water and refrigerant.
Chapter 1 · 1917 to 1930
Brass, and then the Streamline fitting
The Port Huron company took the name Mueller Brass Company in 1925. Five years later it introduced the Streamline solder-type fitting, a copper fitting joined to copper tube with solder rather than threads. It sounds like a small thing. In practice it helped make all-copper plumbing and heating systems an industry standard, replacing heavier threaded pipe with lighter tube and neat soldered joints. The soldered copper joint remains one of the first skills an HVAC apprentice learns.
Chapter 2 · 1965 to 1990
Surviving a parent's collapse
Through the middle of the century Mueller kept adding capacity, including a copper tube mill in Fulton, Mississippi, completed in 1971, and a move into plastic pipe and fittings in 1967. Ownership passed through larger holding companies: U.S. Smelting, Refining and Mining took full control in 1965 and later renamed itself UV Industries, which Sharon Steel agreed to acquire in 1979. When Sharon Steel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1987, Mueller itself never filed and kept operating. At the end of 1990 the reorganization was settled and the business emerged as an independent public company, Mueller Industries, Inc.
Chapter 3 · 1991 to today
From Michigan to Memphis
The new company moved its headquarters from Port Huron to Wichita, Kansas, in 1991, then to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1996. It expanded into Europe in 1997 and in 1998 bought Halstead Industries, another copper tube maker. Today Mueller Industries trades on the New York Stock Exchange as MLI and is based in the Memphis area. It is organized into Plumbing and Refrigeration, Industrial Metals and Climate Equipment segments, has operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia, the Middle East and Great Britain, and has been led by CEO Gregory L. Christopher since 2009.
The Lineup
What Mueller builds today
Mueller makes copper tube, copper and brass fittings, valves, plastic pipe and a broad range of refrigeration and air conditioning components for plumbing, HVAC and industrial customers. HVAC365 carries Mueller wrought copper fittings in its tubing and soldering section, the parts a technician reaches for when running or repairing a line set, condensate line or water connection.
- Street elbows: such as the 3/8-inch OD 90-degree street elbow, which has one fitting end (FTG) that slips into another fitting and one cup end (C) that takes tube, saving a piece of pipe and a joint.
- Wrought copper fittings in general: elbows, couplings, tees and adapters are the connectors that turn, join and branch tube runs, and every one is made to slip precisely over or into copper tube of a matching size.
- Sizes: fittings are sized to standard copper tube, and HVAC work usually calls them out by outside diameter to match refrigerant line sets.
Copper fittings like these are joined by soldering or by brazing. Refrigerant lines are typically brazed with a nitrogen purge to keep scale from forming inside the tube, while water and drain lines are commonly soldered. Either way, the fitting has to match the tube size exactly.
Look for HVAC tools for the cutters, flaring tools and torches that go with them.
At a Glance
Mueller by the numbers
- Port Huron plant opened
- December 17, 1917
- Family founder
- Hieronymus Mueller
- Signature product
- Streamline solder-type fitting, 1930
- Independent company
- Mueller Industries, Inc., since 1990
- Headquarters
- Memphis area, Tennessee
- Stock listing
- NYSE: MLI
- Employees
- About 4,500 (2023)
Questions
Frequently asked questions about Mueller
Who makes Mueller copper fittings?
Mueller copper fittings are made by Mueller Industries, Inc., a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange as MLI and based in the Memphis, Tennessee area.
What is the Mueller Streamline fitting?
The Streamline solder-type fitting, introduced by Mueller in 1930, joins copper tube with solder rather than threads. It helped make all-copper plumbing and heating systems an industry standard.
What does FTG x C mean on a street elbow?
FTG means the fitting end has the outside diameter of the tube, so it slides into another fitting. C means a cup end that the tube slides into. A street elbow with FTG x C saves a short piece of tube and one joint.
When did Mueller Industries become independent?
Mueller Industries emerged as an independent public company at the end of 1990, after the bankruptcy reorganization of its former parent, Sharon Steel.
