Blue and black MDPE pipe - difference?

[usenet]

I know that generally people seem to think that blue MDPE pipe is for burying and that black is for above ground use but I can't seem to find that actually stated explicitly anywhere.

The BES web site

says both are for underground use and doesn't differentiate between them at all except for a trivial difference in price (and the related British Standard is different).

Another site I have found says "Available in Blue for Drinking Water Supply" and "Available in Black for Irrigation Supply".

Aha, I think I've answered my own question, I looked for the relevant British Standards (that I got from the BES site), and they are:-

BS 6572 : 1985 Blue polyethylene pipes up to nominal size 63mm for below ground use for potable water

BS 6730 : 1986 Black polyethylene pipes up to nominal size 63mm for above ground use for cold potable water.

That's pretty definite! :-)

So you can have hot water underground in MDPE but not above ground!

What happens if you use black underground or blue above ground?

[fred]

In article , [e-mail] writes

I looked this up an age ago but don't have any references I'm afraid. IIRC blue is not UV stabilised so will deteriorate if used above ground (unless you live in Scotland ;-) and black is stabilised by the addition of carbon black (to quote). I don't know if black could be used underground tho, it could be that the use of blue is just stipulated to identify the service type but if so it could mean that a water co could refuse to connect you if you used that for the primary connection.

[Kevin Brady]

You end up putting a spade through it (black underground that is) - no similar faux pas with blue above ground that I can think of.

[Christian McArdle]

The black underground is the wrong colour code. Underground utilities should be colour coded for identification and hazard prevention.

The blue above ground will not be protected against UV radiation.

Christian.