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Old January 11th 04, 04:43 PM
Kevin M
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Default pvc pipe vs hose

"John B" wrote in message
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| can someone let me know about the pvc hose vs pipe.


If you're talking about SpaFlex (white flexible PVC) -VS- hard PVC, I'd say
go with hard pipe only if your plumbing is mostly straight runs. Plumbing
90s cause a lot of head loss, where a sweeping curve of SpaFlex would cause
much less loss.
If you prefer to hard pipe everything, there are 90s that will not cause as
much loss as plumbing 90s. You'll find them in the electrical section. They
are gray, and have a quite large sweep compared to plumbing elbows. A 1/2"
electrical 90 has a 5" radius, a 3/4" 90 has 6" radius...etc...
With that said, you can also make custom bends on your hard pipe. Just heat
it up until it's rubbery, and hold it in position while it cools. Just be
careful and don't try to curve it too sharply, or it will collapse and
REALLY restrict the flow.
Bottom line is, if you have a lot of bends to make, and you have room to
sweep them, use SpaFlex and you'll get more value out of your pumps. If you
don't have quite enough room to make large sweeps with SpaFlex, use
electrical 90s. If you don't have any spare room at all, and as a last
resort, use plumbing 90s.

HTH,
Kev