PVC compressed air piping BAD

I think I had a major advantage to this subject in the past....  Ihave seen a lot of shops with PVC or CPVC, which ever..plastic pipe.  I am not a fan and I was running Galvanized in my shop, when I went to the local salvage yard that also buys Surplus materials from large companies and mills.  I found a bundle of 3/4" Stainless Steel Pipe and a few sections of 1/2".  I bought it all by the pound...ended up cheaper the Galvanized, then realized after shopping the McMaster-Carr catalog how much fittings cost...my gosh, crazy price.  Went back a few weeks later to the Yard, anD asked about fittings, no problem..$3.00 a pound, I bought every 3/4" fitting he had a a bunch of 1/2"....he even included some 1/2" and 3/4" Stainless Ball Shut Off Valves for same price.  I thought I was out of the woods, until I needed to thread the pipe....crap, that stuff is tough, asked some friends and one had the Stainless Cutting Dies and another had a power threader.  So I have all of my newest part of shop in Stainless, check out the local Salvage and Surplus...there are still ways around massive expense.  I used an excellent layout diagram from TP Tools (was TIP Sand blast), they sell great plumbing kits...I bought one and duplicated in Stainless.

401MATCOUPE wrote: I think I had a major advantage to this subject in the past....  Ihave seen a lot of shops with PVC or CPVC, which ever..plastic pipe.  I am not a fan and I was running Galvanized in my shop, when I went to the local salvage yard that also buys Surplus materials from large companies and mills.  I found a bundle of 3/4" Stainless Steel Pipe and a few sections of 1/2".  I bought it all by the pound...ended up cheaper the Galvanized, then realized after shopping the McMaster-Carr catalog how much fittings cost...my gosh, crazy price.  Went back a few weeks later to the Yard, anD asked about fittings, no problem..$3.00 a pound, I bought every 3/4" fitting he had a a bunch of 1/2"....he even included some 1/2" and 3/4" Stainless Ball Shut Off Valves for same price.  I thought I was out of the woods, until I needed to thread the pipe....crap, that stuff is tough, asked some friends and one had the Stainless Cutting Dies and another had a power threader.  So I have all of my newest part of shop in Stainless, check out the local Salvage and Surplus...there are still ways around massive expense.  I used an excellent layout diagram from TP Tools (was TIP Sand blast), they sell great plumbing kits...I bought one and duplicated in Stainless.

401matcoupe, what kit did you buy a steel or Maxair kit? I see the steel kits for $40-$350+ that is a lot of $$ for a kit.

My shop is all plumbed in Stainless Steel Pipe....I bought the Coalescing Filter and Regulator kits from TP Tools with Steel Piping...I didn't have enough Stainless SOV for the whole shop, so I used the better valves at the high use areas.  Here is a picture of the kit I used:

And after all is said and done and the factory end of our air hose leaks........we cut it off, put a barb and hose clamp on it, and turn the air back on . that's more dangerous than anything yet posted in my opinion. Or, am I the only one that has done that .


 Oh, don't forget to wrap the clamp w/electrical tape, that buys you a couple weeks before it loosens up and you need to re-tighten it.


Edited by 70amcpwr - Jan/09/2014 at 8:02pm

I am not promoting this to be used but will state my experience using it. This is one of those things that is regulated due to lawsuits and improper installations.

I had cpvc in my old garage for nearly 10 years without one issue with it. It is a sealed system that doesn't leak and I left it on 24/7 at 160 psi all the time. It was regulated down to whatever at the hose reels. I also had na insulated garage that was drywalled that all the of piping was in. Billd got all excited before about this stuff too with me. It worked for me then. The main hazards that you see with this tubing is when you route it in the extreme temps and route into areas that it can get damaged. You also see pvc and not cpvc tubing blow also in all the HORROR stories. They were usually above the drop ceilings and so forth exposed to the extreme temps. CPVC is a more durable and less shattering type of piping. PVC is a brittle and shattering type of piping. I had been working in an extremely noisy environment where a steel pipe blew. It sounded like a bomb going off. I couldn't imagine what the noise would have done to your ears at a place 50 times smaller. It can throw shrapnel out also depended on where and how it broke under high amounts of pressure. That piece of steel pipe was 15 feet up in the air and nothing was touching it. Steel pipes do tend to leak at threaded areas and corrode really bad inside the pipes as they sweat constantly. This can make a mess with what you are working on plus damage the tools you use. I don't have any regrets using cpvc pipes in my old garage. What I do with my new one is up in the air at the moment.

When I sold the old house, I torn down all of that plumbing and threw it out. That pipe does not break hardly and will fold numerous times before it breaks in two. PVC is not the same it will pop and shatter. This I did test out in the old house about a year ago.    

I have cpvc pipe in the basement at the moment. I might have to cap one end off and run 160 psi through it. While I'm behind a 3/4 piece of plywood, I just might have to test this theory of expoding PCV/CPVC pipes vs. sledge hammer.       

Edited by jeremy0711 - Jan/15/2014 at 6:28pm