Flex PVC Glue ???

J

Jack04

New member
I am in the process of installing a flexible PVC section, I had pipe and fittings in hand when the guy at home depot said that regular PVC glue (cement) will not work on the flex stuff.

Is this true?

I'm going to try to get some of the special glue from a spa store today if this is the case.

Thank you!
 
Yes its true. They make a special glue for it and the kind I got was a blue color made for spa flex/flexible PVC

Its called Rain-R-Shine and you can get it at HD and Lowes
 
Not to be sarcastic but why not use the stuff that was designed for the situation especially where so much water is involved. It may work fine but will it hold AS well as the glue that was designed for it???

School glue may hold wood together but wouldn't you rather use wood glue thats designed to do that
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15232717#post15232717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Phyxius
Not to be sarcastic but why not use the stuff that was designed for the situation especially where so much water is involved. It may work fine but will it hold AS well as the glue that was designed for it???
Click to expand...

Simply because the flex PVC glue is nearly impossible to find. If you can find it, great. If not, regular PVC glue works just as well for our applications. Just don't use primer.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15232758#post15232758 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MarkS
Simply because the flex PVC glue is nearly impossible to find. If you can find it, great. If not, regular PVC glue works just as well for our applications. Just don't use primer.
Click to expand...

My local Home Depots all have it here ( Rain-R-Shine ) so I guess I`m lucky :)
 
I never could find it, but I've been out of the hobby for more than two years. Still, I used the plain PVC cement to glue spa flex to rigid PVC fittings with no problems.
 
PVC pipe is listed as hose not plumbing pipe. It is not allowed in domestic water plumbing system where there will be pressure in the lines when the water is not running. They n make special fittings for PVC flex "hose" but they are even harder to find then the special glue. Flexible PVC was initailly designed as electrical flexible conduit that was many buried. The market has grown since its beginning. The grey flex PVC is a PVC with a UV inhibitor and is used as electrical Flex PVC. The white has no UV inhibitors and is not allowed for Electrical use. The balck is just the same as the whitw but with carbon black added for appearnce/color.

The method to solvent weld Flex PVC is to treat it the same as regular PVC pipe but after pushing it into the fittings do not twist it. Unless your Flex PVC pipe is being put under tension, exposed to high pressures in combination with the use of quick operating valves there is very likely no need to use the "special" solvent welding chemicals made for it. If you have a pressure biased pump and use ball valves or actuated valves such as a solenoid valve then the special glue would probably be a better choice than standard PVC pipe cement.
 
It comes down to this:

How many people have actually witnessed a flexPVC failure in a hobby scenario?

Stu
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15235010#post15235010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stugray
It comes down to this:

How many people have actually witnessed a flexPVC failure in a hobby scenario?

Stu
Click to expand...

I have never seen a joint fail when using standard PVC cement without using any cleaner and using just standard PVC fittings and I use Flex PVC with actuated valves such as Hawwards and I use ball valves, but all my sstems use flow biased pumps not pressure bo iased so the pressures are like 6 psi and lower. The examples of failures listed at some plumbing sites are usually when talking about waterheads of thirty feet or more with a fast acting valve at the bottom being quickly closed thereby creating a water hammer that caused the standard fitting weld to fail. Not many people I know of who have water pressures high enough or a head of thirty feet to create enough water hammer to cause tha but it is possible that someone might be using a huge pressure biased pump on a houses secong floor fed from a basement about (8' + 8' + 5')= 21 feet. Still quite aways short of 30 feet.

I have only seen failure of joints of Flex PVC couplings and standard PVC couplings on Flex PVC used as buried electrical conduits runs tahat occur during wire pulling. But those are using huge winches to pull cables that are not easy to pull even through rigid conduit. All failures I have seen have n been at the fittings and not the pipe it self.
 
On FlexPVC.com, where I bought all of my flex PVC, they specifically say that regular PVC glue is the glue to use because the flex PVC is the same chemical compound as rigid PVC. I did that and it is working great.
 
The beginning plastic compounds are the same but the flex PVC has chemicakls added to make if flexible that are not in regular PVC pipe. Flex PVC neversays that they are the same.. They say, "Uses standard Schedule 40 PVC fittings and primer/glue. Cuts with a hacksaw, carpenters saw or racheting PVC pipe cutters." One could probably also use CPVC cement, ABS cement or maybe even MEK or airplane model glue but that does not mean they are the best glue formulated for the pipe, and neither is standard PVC cement but it will work fine for nearly all proper uses and low pressure usage of the Flex PVC.
 
I used flex pvc on my last system and I purchased it at an irrigation store that was local in my area. I was giving clear pvc primer and cement . When I asked about gluing everything, because I had never done any plumbing before, I was told a few simple things.

1. Regular pvc cement works properly for the job BUT...
2. Primer is a must because of the extra chemicals in flex pvc.
3. Using cement only will not properly soften the flex pvc to make a good bond.

My entire system was done with flex, the only thing rigid in my system were elbows, unions and ball valves. I never experienced a leak and that was my first attempt at plumbing.
 
Regular glue is just drying and filling the gaps and if its a tight fit to start with its fine or even better if its going on a ribbed fitting but in reality it peals right off. Try it on a section, let it dry. Then you can just peel it right off
 
I did discover that you NEVER want to paint SpaFlex! It was over 2 years ago (Krylon Fusion) and it is still tacky today! ;)
 
Wasn't glue, it was paint. The solvent evaporated pretty quickly but the spaflex is tacky to this day.
 
So the concensus is - Clean and primer okay? Regular PVC glue, but do not twist.

Apply glue to both the PVC fitting and the flex pipe?

Correct?

LL
 
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