Bending cpvc

[drillman88]

I need to clean my gutters and was going to try and bend some 1/2" cpvc to make a jet that I could hook up to either water or air compressor. I have some cpvc laying around I wanted to heat up and bend.
Will the cpvc bend with boiling water like regular pvc or do I need to use a heat gun or propane torch to bend it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[pierhogunn]

try the boiling water first... unless the rated water temps are near 180*... then you may need a heat gun

[drillman88]

I used the heat gun and it worked pretty nicely. I decided the boiling water would be too much trouble. I also found out that a 1/4 NPT quick disconnect will thread itself snuggly into a 1/2" cpvc coupling
It fits into the necked down area in the middle and still glues up.

[mschrank]

I know it's generally recommended to stay away from pvc for compressed air applications...is cpvc rated for it?

[LCHIEN]

I know it's generally recommended to stay away from pvc for compressed air applications...is cpvc rated for it?

it's not that PVC is not rated strong enough for compressed air, but the problem is that when it fails, it shatters and sends shards flying all over. This can happen if the PVC degrades or gets damaged, even though rated for the PSI in use. Metal pipe on the other hand, when it fails, simply splits and does not send shrapnel all over the place.

Using PVC with water and incompressible fluids is OK because there is not sufficient stored spring energy to shatter the pipe in the same way.

The plastic composition for CPVC is different from PVC, but I imagine it would be similar to PVC in this regard.

[scmhogg]

I have not tried to bend cpvc. However, this lack of knowledge has never stopped me from rendering my opinion.

With regular pvc, a heat gun is tricky. It goes from soft enough to bend and soft enough to sag in a heartbeat. If boiling water isn't hot enough to bend the cpvc, I would be inclined to try to heat some vegetable oil up to 220 or 230. With a liquid, it is easier to apply even heat to the pipe. To get a good bend one side must stretch and the other compress. If only one happens, you won't get a good bend.

Filling the pipe with sand might help spread the heat and stop it from collapsing.

Steve

[Uncle Cracker]

I've had trouble with jury-rigged bending attempts, so when I saw an electric "hot box" for conduit on CL for $40, I snagged it. It's one of those tools that you'll probably only use once in a blue moon, but it's worth it. Nothing but success since then (3 opportunities to use it). But I don't know about CPVC, as I've always bent only Sch.40 PVC, myself.