Pipe Threader

[leehljp]

I don't do much FaceBook browsing but did see the ad below while viewing a nephew. It is a pipe threader for PVC. I thought it sure is late coming to the party. PVC is on the way out but still around.

PVC threader: https://www.amazon.com/Integrated-In...1zcF9hdGY&th=1

Comments?

[Jim Frye]

Not sure of the validity of this one. Seems like an answer in search of a question. There has always been threaded adapters that glue on to a PVC pipe for connecting to metal threaded parts.

[dbhost]

Hmmm. Yeah seems like a solution trying to find a problem. Glue on thread adapters have been around for decades.

I hadn't heard PVC was on its way out. How do you figure? Because of PEX?

[Jim Frye]

Yes, PEX has replaced copper and PVC for supply lines here, but PVC is still the drainage solution. Our new home is plumbed with PEX for the supply lines. Forced me to buy PEX tools and learn new practices. Kinda glad as soldering copper had become tedious for me with the changes in solder content . The rest of home's the water system is PVC, a technique I can still do.

[d_meister]

There is a lot of heavy-wall Schedule 80 PVC on yachts, and coming up with piping and joints to fit in restricted spaces has always been difficult. This would be a must-have for those applications. Nobody local stocks a full line of Schedule 80, ever.

[Jim Frye]

Yeah, I've never seen schedule 80 in the stores, even the plumbing supply shop near here special orders it.

[capncarl]

My gripe about PVC is when an assembly is all glued up and it develops a leak the only recourse is cutting enough PVC to disassemble whatever threaded or whatever. My answer to this problem is to install strategically placed PVC unions. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a plumber stoop this low! Because they make their living cutting up perfectly good PVC assemblies to replace one leaky fitting.

Concerning PEX. I’ve been extremely lucky with my house PEX and haven’t amassed a vast hoard of replacement PEX fittings like I do with PVC. Recently I’ve had the honor to assist neighbors with some leaking PEX. Most repairs involved PEX sharkbite fittings. Nearly impossible to remove without the dinky little undo tool. I wouldn’t feel very good about installing shark bite in an attic situation, might be a great fitting but I just wouldn’t like it!

[LCHIEN]

Not sure i understand these pvc pipe threader.

Clearly you can't take a slip joint and thread the pipe male and joint female as there will be no thread engagement. You can buy threaded end joints for connecting to metal pipe. Does this just chase those threads?
But it looks like the pictures show threading plain pipe and plain slip joints.

Is there a thread designation for these like 1/2" NPT?

[cwsmith]

I haven't plumbed anything in decades so this is new to me. About the time I turned 12 and up to the point where I graduated highschool, I worked with my father who was a master plumber and steamfitter. I learned how to fit pipe, solder, thread iron pipe, and even caulk and pour lead for sectional cast iron sewer lines. I don't recall doing anything with PVC until perhaps the early 60's, if then. Frankly I hated that work!

That said, I really don't like PVC and can't imagine threading it. As some of you have mentioned, there are fittings for that need. I would think threading PVC would weaken it considerably.

CWS

[leehljp]

Hmmm. Yeah seems like a solution trying to find a problem. Glue on thread adapters have been around for decades.

I hadn't heard PVC was on its way out. How do you figure? Because of PEX?

1. because of PEX - Yes.
2. "PVC pipes can become brittle and crack with age, especially when exposed to environmental factors.
While PVC is known for its durability and longevity, factors like UV exposure, temperature fluctuations, and chemical interactions can accelerate its degradation."

I have run into OLD brittle PVC several times in the past few years.

While it has not become the least favorite plumbing water material in HD or Lowes yet, with the professionals it has. As a fresh water flowing material, PVC will stay around for the local home fixer upper who can't afford the PEX tools, but otherwise new house construction will be using PEX - at least from my interaction with plumbers.

[Jim Frye]

When I installed water solar panels to heat our in ground pool, I used CVPC pipe and fittings because of the heat involved. The four LOF parallel connected panels could get the 22,000 gallon 16'x24" pool up to nearly 100 degrees if left unchecked. The pipe was outdoors and southern exposed all year. Never had an issue in the twenty years it was installed, but I'd bet it would have developed issues later on.

[dbhost]

So for what it's worth. My house is 41 years old now, and has a mix of Galvanized Steel and PVC. I KNOW at some point I am going to have to have a repipe done and I was planning on PEX. But that was a simplicity issue...

My camper has NO plumbing left in it except maybe 3" of a stupd where the freshwater fill goes through the side. A prior owner removed it. And changed the original melamine countertop out / removed the sink, presumably due to a plumbing leak. What pipe is there from 1993 looks like CPVC. The pipe going in I already have and it is PEX...

Not that I am convinced PEX is the best alternative for every solution, but I am convinced that if I repipe both the house, and camper van with PEX that it will outlive me.

[Black walnut]

I use above ground irrigation lines in my yard. PVC Easy to fix when ever there is a break, seems like a job every spring. I have impact sprinkler risers where I need them and hold it all together with unions. Glue on NPT fittings have been all I have needed so far. Most everything I just use slip fittings. We have a dog that kept chewing hoses. PVC was my answer. I like buying new tools, especially single purpose specialty ones but a pvc threader, um nope.

[Jim Frye]

I've never seen above ground irrigation lines. Really.

[dbhost]

My HOA would have a conniption fit over an above ground irrigation pipe...

[capncarl]

My above ground irrigation piping is black poly hose ( even though it comes in a 100’ to 250’ roll the farm center I buy it at calls it pipe! There are plastic fittings for every application imaginable that just push on and self clamp with a large left handed nut. The misters and drip hoses I use are 1/4” hose that have a fitting that just spear into the “pipe” It works great, relatively cheap, much cheaper than pvc at $20 per 150’ roll and hides well in flower beds with pine straw, mulch or stone.