Looking for PVC elbow, or alternate solution

Aug 20, 2021 Last reply: 4 years ago 41 Replies

He says he thinks it was hit with the mower.

If he just patched it, don't you think the mower will hit it again? I have suggested cutting the whole mess out and burying it deeper or back filling around it so it is not exposed to another mower strike.

Besides this is a two dollar part, you will spend way more than that on your patch. Once he gets it in his hand and posts a picture, it will be easy to identify. They don't make that many kinds of plastic elbow.

Maybe you should look upwards one post.

I still bet if you took those rubber couplers loose and took that fitting to a plumbing supply or even a big box store, they would match it up. You have about $12-$15 in JB weld depending on where you got it and the part is probably $2. The next time it gets hit you can try that.

Which one? I basically said the rubber couplings make it easy to take apart, not that it was the problem and if he is pissing on the fire by not dealing with the mower hitting it, he isn't fixing anything. I would not trust a guy on a riding mower not to run over the pipe and the little flags next time. If this is a "lawn guy" they run over everything and they are usually going faster than you can jog if they are on a commercial ZTR.

The one posted by the OP just previous to yours. The one where he told us that he has already slathered it with putty.

You said "Once he gets it in his hand and posts a picture, it will be easy to identify."

It was already "fixed" (and a repair picture posted) by the time you posted that comment.

Depends on who is doing the mowing. Even if it's a lawn service, I would think if he tells them to avoid it they would.

But not his time. Screwing around to lower it, isn't quick. Plus he says he can't find the right elbow and it's been there since the 70s with apparently no problem until now.

Once he gets it in his hand and posts a picture, it

Apparently it's not that easy and you're not going to identify it here with just a pic. Meanwhile he's chosen a fix what's there solution, which is what I would do too.

It looks like a hose barb 90 degree elbow. Maybe it's metric for some odd reason. My experience with those is it's necessary to cut the hose with a knife to free it. That shortens the hose. It's fixed in place. Good move. Less work. I'd look for a chunk of grain bin flooring to cover the elbow. Maybe a grate of some sort would be handier for the OP.

My first post on this was Friday aug 20, before he did the JB Weld job,.

OK We will see won't we. My guess is he will either be back or quietly fix this the right way. This is plastic pipe, buried in the dirt. rerouting it is not that hard and since it is already using rubber couplers, damn near any fitting close to the right size will work but I bet he can find a direct replacement if he wants. If it isn't regular Sch40 or DWV, it is probably barbed poly.

The chance of it being metric in the US in 1972 is pretty funny. I already suggested a barbed poly fitting. If he replaced it with galvanized I bet the mower guy would try a lot harder to miss it ;-)

Personally I would dig a little, Cut the horizontal pipe back about a foot. Cut the vertical down an inch or two and use heavy duty radiator hose for that top coupler. (with an "S" bend in it) Then bury the whole thing. If the mower can't get to it, it can't hit it. That whole thing is cheaper than 2 packs of JB weld.

So plainly, the OP screwed it up. Now that he has it covered with that white stuff, we'll never figure out what the part looks like.

I don't care if he fixed the leak. He didn't replace the part and that's what counts.

(once on a talk/interview tv show, they were discussing mail order brides, and a member of the audience said, "I don't care if they're both happy. It's wrong." )

Didn't I read that this newsgroup has a SWAT team that we can send to the OP's home to dig up the pipe, take off his outrageous repair, and find out what part he needed?

I read once that we had a SWAT team, so it much be true.

Your bad finger is messing up your memory.

Yep, sure was, I saw that. But the post where you continued making that suggestion was *after* he posted a picture of his solution.

It's OK, you missed it. You don't have to admit it. That would hurt too much. You can tell me to "Let it go" now.

At that point I was suggesting what he could do when the mower hits it again because he didn't address that problem.

If you actually want to fix things you have to address the original problem, not just put some half ass patch on it and wait for it to fail again.

At that point why not just use duct tape. That seems to be the half ass patch for everything.

Duct tape would've probably been the best solution. It's intended as a temporary fix many times and there's nothing more permanent than temporary.

As the saying goes...

"It's only temporary...unless it works."

It will work until the mower hits it again. He didn't fix the original problem. He just put a band aid on the wound. There is a name for that but it is politically incorrect these days.

Has it crossed your mind that the pipe needed to be fixed anyway and *then* the mower issue could be dealt with? Have you seen the OP's yard? Do you know the exact cause of the mower scalp? I don't think you do.

How do you know? Long before he decided on how to fix the pipe, the OP had already said "Yes, I will find something that isn't too ugly to put over it so the lawn mower can't get to it."

Do you know if he's done that yet? I don't think you do.

Yep, there's a name for what you do a lot: Assume.

Just wanted to report that the epoxy putty elbow encapsulation seems to have worked well. Of course I don't know about long term, but for now it's holding its own.

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