Pvc joint quite loose in dry Fit

IUfan

Member
I'm glueing some joints and I sanded one end of the PVC pipe down but now it's quite loose.

It easily bottoms out in the fitting, and the fitting easily pulls off the pipe with its own weight.

Can I still safely use this pipe?

You probably thinking just use a different pipe. But this pipe already has some fittings that I've glued to the other end. So I'm trying not to discard that part.
 
I wouldn't use it. If you have the room, you can save the other end by cutting the pipe and using a slip union.
 
At Home Depot, just showed the plumbing guy here, the coupling I had was for a vent, so he gave me a longer coupling, more depth for the pipe to sit.

With the new coupling it does get pretty tight the further in it goes.
 
What did you sand, the outside of the pipe? You should never do that. The pipes are sized to fit into the fittings without modification. A pipe that is that loose may not cement properly as the two surfaces won't be in close enough contact.

You could try the deeper fitting, but I would probably cut the pipe 6" back and add a slip-slip coupling without sanding the pipe.

If the pipe is that loose without any modifications, either the pipe or the fitting is defective.
 
The pipe was joined to an existing Union fitting, for some reason all the unions in the local stores don't fit the thread on the union, otherwise I would just replace the union end.

I sprayed the pipes black, so was sanding the paint off to make sure the paint didn't interfere with the cement.

The sanding is quite tapered so with the longer coupling it secures tight like normal when it's bottomed out.

Fingers crossed, gonna have to go with it.

My tanks had the sump off now for 24 hrs, so I'm fighting against time to get it back on, the heaters in the display and plenty of flow, so everything is ok, but just hate not having the skimmer and ATO not working.
 
I took on board what you said, and decided to be safe rather than sorry.

So cut the pipe back about an inch and just used primer to remove the old paint. Fits just fine, feel much better about it.

Thanks for the advice guys
 
249a01c3ad7b484eeaf29d4a9a736c64.jpg


Much better! [emoji106]
 
Looks good -I would feel much better about it as well

Lesson for everyone reading: wait until your plumbing is done to paint it!

IUfan- i have to assume that the union you used was a different brand with a different connection from those you got more recently. The other suggestion I would have had is to see if there was a brand marking on the union so you could find a store that sold the same brand. Seems odd that they didn't match; I though they were more or less a standard size, but I haven't worked much with unions.
 
Yeah, I painted these pipes nearly 2 years ago, and wasn't planning on changing out my sump, but I decided I didn't like my diy sump anymore, so that's why I'm switching. But yeah, if I were to do again, I would definitely not paint my pipes.

I think I bought my original unions from BRS, but the ones at Lowes have a bigger nut on them, so the 2 won't go together.
 
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