wickes 40mm waste pipe... 43mm

[Gazz]

Just wondering about something,

Parents are fitting a bath back into the bathroom that was changed into a shower room a few years ago, he needed some waste pipe, so nipped to the local wickes, and bought a 3 meter length of 40mm white waste pipe,

He then proceeds to cut it to the size he needs, pokes it through the hole in the wall, and tries to connect it up to the trap supplied with the bath, pipe is too big,

So he tries the other end, fitting it into the boss in the soil pipe, too big, then he notices printed on the side of the pipe is says it's 43mm.

Reciept says he bought 40mm pipe, label on the display says 40mm pipe, didn't even know 43mm waste pipe existed,

Of course as he's cut it he cant have a refund or exchange, and they wont accept it's their fault it dosent fit the bath's trap, they told him he should buy wickes brand fittings and it will all fit then,

He went to Q&Q and got some real 40mm pipe instead, but i was wondering where this 43mm waste pipe comes from, some new standard or something, I am wondering if it's conduit pipe, as it's a hard plastic and not flexiable at all like the 40mm pipe, but he says he picked it up in the plumbing section,

[newshound]

Someone will doubtless come up with more on the standards (or lack of them) but having suffered from the same problem you might look for the word "universal" on plastic plumbing fittings in the sheds or wherever. These have more "slop" and a big fat conical sealing washer which fits various pipe sizes.

Apart from the nominal 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 inch ("sink" and "bath" waste pipe) which goes into "compression" type fittings with rubber seals, there are also solvent weld pipes.

Personally I would have said you have a strong case for a refund given the clear mismatch between the labelling/receipt and the product.

[Dave Liquorice]

The normal gotcha with waste pipe is that push fit/universal is a different OD to solvent weld. Just measured some solvent weld at 43mm OD.

[orion.osiris]

Forget about metric sizes for waste pipes; it's confusing. There are only t wo sizes of waste pipe: inch-and-a-half and inch-and-a-quarter. That's it. Forget about compression fittings; they're for wankers. They confuse the pi cture further by being slightly different diameter to solvent weld. More co nfusion comes in (with mm) when manufacturers specify the outside diameter instead of the inside and vice versa. In summary: Forget the sheds. Only ever go to a plumber's merchant and get either inch+ half or inch+quarter solvent weld only and you won't go wrong.

[Nightjar]

sizes of waste pipe: inch-and-a-half and inch-and-a-quarter. That's it.

What about 2 inch?

...

inch+half or inch+quarter solvent weld only and you won't go wrong.

Except even they are not always compatible.

Colin Bignell

[Gazz]

Ahhhaaa, that could well be it, the 43mm pipe seems to be a different type of plastic to the 40mm one, it's more like electrical conduit pipe, so it could well be solvent weld pipe after all,

I personally buy pipes from a builders merchant close to me, but my parents seem to not want the 'hassle' so pay over the odds at the sheds, plus he bought it on a sunday afternoon as he wanted the job finished.

[Toby]

The solvent weld stuff seems to be harder and more shiny than the push fit stuff in my experience. I prefer solvent weld personally, once it is installed, then it is there forever!

[John Rumm]

Solvent weld is deliberately made a little bigger. It will fit solvent fittings and "universal" (i.e. compression) fittings. Sounds like the trap was a push fit one. That's smaller and a slightly softer plastic.

[harry]

The pipe sizes vary between manufacturers. This means that push fit (O ring) and glueable pipe fittings are non- interchangeable.

However the compression fittings fit everything but are more expensive. They are dismantleable for if you get a blockage which is good.

[Frank Erskine]

A blockage is good?

[Roger Mills]

sizes of waste pipe: inch-and-a-half and inch-and-a-quarter. That's it. Forget about compression fittings; they're for wankers. They confuse the picture further by being slightly different diameter to solvent weld. More confusion comes in (with mm) when manufacturers specify the outside diameter instead of the inside and vice versa.

inch+half or inch+quarter solvent weld only and you won't go wrong.

That may be true if you are buying all your pipe and fittings in one go.

But it's definitely *not* true if you need pipe to marry up with push-fit fittings - as the OP found to his cost!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

or inch+quarter solvent weld only and you won't go wrong.

Bingo.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

If you have the runs, yes.

[milnes.bm]

Same happened to me - bought "40mm" pipe (marked on Screwfix label as 40mm) only to find that it was 43mm (printed by manufacturers on pipe).

[A.Lee]

This is when you need someone with experience. There are 2 types of 40mm pipe, push/compression fit, and solvent weld.

Solvent weld is wider than push fit, and they cannot be interchanged. There are some compression fittings that will accept it. The 40mm is the internal diameter.

[Roger Mills]

Yes, indeed - this crops up from time to time here - and is a trap (sorry!) waiting for the uninitiated to fall into.

[tony sayer]

Yes isn't it!, just think they'd err umm standardise on things like that;!...

[Cursitor Doom]

There are: inch-and-a-half and inch-and-a-quarter (solvent weld). Anything else is BS and/or a red herring.

[Roger Mills]

Well they *have* insofar that push-fit and solvent weld pipes are a different size to prevent the wrong combinations of pipe and fittings from being used. The only problem is that they're both *called* the same

- at least at first sight.

[totton783]

43mm is normally the solvent weld type and 40mm is normally push fit simple