Is there any consensus on whether or not to use PVC or CPVC for air lines? My compressor is capable of 150psi. I already have copper for most of my distribution system but I need to add a branch and the copper prices are profanity inducing.
Max
The consensus in many previous threads is to *never* use PVC for air.
jc
PVC that gets bumped becomes a schrapnel (sp?) bomb.
Bill in WNC mountains
Yes, there is -- don't.
So use steel. Never, never, never, never use PVC/CPVC for compressed air. It's been discussed here a number of times before. Do a Google Groups search on this newsgroup, and I'm sure you'll find a few horror stories.
...uh, so would you like to provide some context with that?
[I've got quite a few feet of PVC pipe in my drip system that I've bumped a few thousand times and thus far, no shrapnel] +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
If you like the idea of PVC shards being driven about the shop by 150 psi pressure, I say go fer it.
You might want to keep an eye on it. I have seen it become very brittle and shatter with no air pressure when I was attempting to cut it.
Neither PVC nor CPVC is considered safe for compressed air service. This is according to both OSHA and the pipe manufacturers. There are some flexible plastic products that can be used for air lines, i don't know how they price compared to copper.
Sounds fascinating but I think I'll pass. I considered black pipe but it's heavy, ugly, and a hassle to cut and thread even though I have the required tools. Over a hundred bucks for the copper choice but what the hell, it's only money.
Max (bemoaning the price of copper)
Frank Stutzman wrote in news:el4d24$2098$ snipped-for-privacy@stationair.kjsl.com:
You're better without the PVC. If for nothing else but it allowing you to be lazy.
How are you going to show that off to friends that drop by?
When that happens and you want to use the air again, you're probably going to be quite impatient.
Hm... looks like the virtues of a Perl programmer apply to more than just Perl. :-)
Puckdropper
I did my air in black iron pipe, mostly because of the dangers of exploding PVC as already mentioned by other posters. In hindsight, I'm wondering if I might have done better with PVC.
All of my lines are in the walls of my shop. There is 1/2 inch plywood on one side of them and steel siding on the other. I'd do black iron pipe where it came through the wall, but other than that the PVC would be well protected.
Anybody wager a guess if an exploding 1 inch PVC pipe could go through 1/2 inch plywood? The pipes couldn't be hit by anything, but summer heat might soften the PVC to the point it would burst
-- Frank Stutzman
How about nylon tubing? This is similar to what I use:
-Brian
Max wrote:
How much is it going to cost you to tear the wall out and replace a busted pipe?
Probably not. DAGS. The failure of PVC pipe with compressed air is pretty dramatic. The potential for injury and property damage is real.
Assuming the explosion doesn't tear the wall out for you ;-)
Think "pipe bomb".
I doubt it would go through, but why would you want to do it anyway? Your chances of a PVC failure or a glue joint failure are pretty high - very high compared to black pipe or copper. Even if you don't get hurt by it, you still have to deal with the repair to the lines.
I think a pipe bomb has quite a bit more than 120 or so psi behind it.
And you are implying that there is something wrong with being lazy?
Besides allowing me to be lazy, the PVC would also allow me to be cheap. Cheap AND lazy. Be still my beating heart ;-)
As you implied, I'm lazy. When friends drop by the shop, we drink beer. Beer + whirling sharp things means missing fingers, which is a shop verboten ("ten in, ten out" is written on the door).
Doubt if any of the beer swillers really give a damn what my plumbing is like. Pneumatic plumbing.
True. But I spent better than a week cutting, threading and cursing that black pipe. I could have done the PVC thing in a few hours. Could have made a lot of sawdust in that week. If the heat caused a failure once in
10 years then maybe the trade off might be worth it.Again, you imply being lazy, impatient and full of hubris is a bad thing. Its worked for me for 45 years.
(what is really scary is I knew exactly what you were talking about without even looking at that URL).
Yeah, but the failure modes are the same. Copper, however, doesn't fracture at shop pressures - it peels back, which is a "safe" way to fail in a shop, since there's no flying shrapnel.
Me too, but as I think about this something else comes to mind...
If the PVC failed, and the wall was tightly constructed, the inside of the wall would become quickly pressurized. If the airline was fed from a larger capacity tank that didn't run out of air as the air expanded to fill the wall, the would thing episode make for some interesting results.
The scary stuff would probably be contained, but I wouldn't want to be next to it when it went, or with my hands near a spinning blade. At the least, I'd have dirty underwear.
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