Drain pipe and retired pipe
Category · 7 entries · Updated
Drain, waste and vent pipe carries water away by gravity rather than under pressure. PVC and ABS are the usual plastic choices. This category also covers pipe that owners and insurers now ask about because it fails early or is no longer made.
Entries in this category
PVC Schedule 40 pipeWhite rigid PVC pipe made to ASTM D1785; used for cold-water pressure lines outside the house and, when dual-marked, for drains.
PVC Schedule 80 pipeDark gray, thick-wall PVC pressure pipe; same outside diameter as Schedule 40 but a smaller bore and higher pressure rating.
PVC DWV and foam-core pipeWhite PVC drain, waste and vent pipe, made solid-wall (ASTM D2665) or with a lighter cellular foam core (ASTM F891); drainage only.
ABS pipeBlack acrylonitrile butadiene styrene drain, waste and vent pipe; solvent-cemented with ABS cement and used much like white PVC DWV.
Polybutylene pipeGray, flexible plastic water supply pipe used in US homes from the late 1970s; leaks and class actions ended its use.
Kitec pipeMultilayer plastic-aluminum water pipe with brass fittings made by IPEX; its fittings were prone to dezincification and leaks.
Orangeburg pipeBituminous fiber sewer pipe made of tar-soaked fibers, laid from about the 1950s to early 1970s; it deforms, cracks and lets roots in.
Did you know
- A 2 in Schedule 40 PVC pipe rated 280 psi at 73°F keeps only 62 psi of that rating at 140°F. (source: Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Co.) Read the entry
- Sunlight degrades PVC pipe only to a depth of about 0.001 to 0.003 in, and the effect stops when the exposure stops. (source: Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Co.) Read the entry
- Schedule 40 and Schedule 80 PVC of the same size have identical outside diameters, so a 1/2 in Schedule 80 pipe has a bore about 0.08 in narrower. [1] (source: Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Co.) Read the entry