Life expectancy of plumbing materials

[flyboy]

Just installed some new waste pipe with push fit connectors. How long will these last till the O rings get deformed/ rot / leak.

Which led me to think about the soil stack I replaced. Cast iron and 90 years old - with another 90 years of life if I had not needed to connect other items to the stack. How long will replacement stack last?

Whats the life of other plumbing materials? What records are there out there? Is it safe to reuse 30 year old copper?

 

[Phil]

Modern materials = rubbish

Look at the thickness of todays copper and the price...riddiculas, plastic pipes photodegrade in the sunlight and I've seen plastic waste pipes from the 70's on south facing walls crumble like polysyrene while the cast iron remains solid.

 

[AWheating]

its not really easy to answer. The biggests factor that determines the life of any plumbing item after manufacturing quality is how it has been installed. Im not just talking about poorly fitted items, position and route is a big factor also.

things like sunlight, heat, movement and incorrect use would shorten the life span of many products.

 

[Best]

Waste pipe push fit last years if done right, but solvent joints should last longer. If the sun is kept away from plastic waste, it will last 30,40 yrs. Better that it is painted. Copper pipe on heating should last & last, but on mains water in some areas - I would worry. Plastic heating pipes & fittings, I think will fail for all sorts reasons when not too old.

 

[Phil]

I keep seeing the old Acorn system from the 80's every now and then, seems to hold okay apart from the 22mm Acorn elbow in our house that blew off when the combi was added and ruined a ceiling!

 

[Guest123]

I keep seeing the old Acorn system from the 80's every now and then, seems to hold okay apart from the 22mm Acorn elbow in our house that blew off when the combi was added and ruined a ceiling!

I remember using Acorn in the 80's in the Glasgow tenement renovations. Every plumber worth his salt rated it ok for gravity fed but not for mains pressure. Seems your combi proved this point.

 

[Phil]

I'm just wondering if the elbow that blew off was an Acorn elbow, didn't they have their own specific size?

This was an old black plastic elbow joining 22mm copper, I assume its Acorn but I've not really seen a picture of one. It looked about 30 years old.

 

[Guest123]

I remember Acorn being a grey colour. The old alkathene pipe and fittings designed for mains were originally black but were later changed to blue because they were the same colour as mains electricity cables.

Most plastic push fit systems are now banned in the USA due to the high failure rate and huge insurance claims. My coils of Polybutelene have stickers saying "Not for sale in the USA". Do a Google search on PB and alkathene failures and insurance claims in the USA, it makes excellent reading!

 

[twistednuts]

Times change and we have to change with them, sometimes its not always for the better, but hey ho.

A plastic waste system might not last as long as cast iron, but imagine putting a new stack up in cast!! Carrying it, packing the joints, cutting it, plugging the holes in the wall, it'd take all week to put up 🙂

When i hear people saying how rubbish push fit pipe and fittings are, it always reminds me of what plumbers thought of copper when that was first used...... "Im not usin that straight stuff, ya cant roll it up - it'll never catch on, look how thin it is..."

 

[Guest123]

Cast iron stacks? What about carrying a cast iron bath top floor in flats! Much easier breaking it up and getting it down.

 

[Phil]

Plumbers today don't know they're born, imagine putting up a 3 storey cast iron stack on a cold winters day, that stuff is heavy no wonder they came in short lengths.

 

[Puddle]

plastics are a lot more resilient than many think

Have been using the same condom for years now and shows now sign of degradation

Mind you,it has been kept out of sun light apart from that time I ..............

:75:

 

[Guest123]

Ouch! a plastic condom, do you get it in 32mm and 40mm multifit?

 

[Phil]

On that subject, do you know those HepVO traps..............😳

 

[PlumbBobBob]

you didn't did you?

 

[Phil]

No! but I bet someone has......

 

[SimonJohns]

I has to explain why they are called jack and Danny valves

I just showed it to them

 

[stevetheplumber]

i doubt very much any plumber complained about going from 2cwt rolls of lead to skinny bundles of copper
cast iron stacks are still fitted in most large buildings even to day only its in timesaver
what you forget is a stack was a nice job in those days because you got the time to do it properly and in winter the pot kept you warm , as did the jones cutters and humping i up 4 lifts of scaffold

 

[twistednuts]

i doubt very much any plumber complained about going from 2cwt rolls of lead to skinny bundles of copper
cast iron stacks are still fitted in most large buildings even to day only its in timesaver
what you forget is a stack was a nice job in those days because you got the time to do it properly and in winter the pot kept you warm , as did the jones cutters and humping i up 4 lifts of scaffold

Maybe. But why do so many plumbers slate plastic?

Its clean, light, easy to cut, the joints push together, comes in long lengths, its threadable through holes, doesnt burst as easy, not as much heat loss....... on paper its a no brainer.......but even i whinge about usin it 🙂

 

[PlumbBobBob]

it's just that we're a load of luddites lol

 

[Phil]

Id be interested to rig up a loop of pipework and have a 15mm pushfit cap of each manufacturer on it and pump it up to 20-30 bar or whatever and see which one blew first, and then repeat it to be fair.

Just for my own interest, not that it would normally get to that pressure.