Hi folks,
I have a third-party water treatment package, multimedia filters followed by water softeners. Total volume treated is 180 cubic metres an hour.
I'm experiencing a strange problem:
The plastic pipework (ABS, PVC and u-PVC) seems to be becoming brittle. I'm experiencing failures of pieces such as flanges and short sections of pipe. The manufacturer of the pipe is currently testing to see if there is a pipe fault in manufacture, but this seems unlikely, as it would be affecting multiple batches of multiple pipe sizes (from 1/2" to 8"
Fissure cracks (by which I mean long, up to 2 to 3 feet on the 8" pipework) seem to be the biggest problem, and the flanges seem to develop from a single point.
I'm thinking that as this is affecting all sizes of pipework, both lengths and fittings, that it may be something removing the plasticizers from the material itself.
Incoming water is normal potable water, dosed on site with chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) to about 1.5 ppm, filtered in the multi media filters, chlorine removed with sodium bisulphite, softened in exchange resin, and then re-dosed with chlorine. This problem is showing itself on pipework carrying water raw, after chlorine dosing and after bisulphite dosing.
Any ideas, anyone?
Michael
I have a third-party water treatment package, multimedia filters followed by water softeners. Total volume treated is 180 cubic metres an hour.
I'm experiencing a strange problem:
The plastic pipework (ABS, PVC and u-PVC) seems to be becoming brittle. I'm experiencing failures of pieces such as flanges and short sections of pipe. The manufacturer of the pipe is currently testing to see if there is a pipe fault in manufacture, but this seems unlikely, as it would be affecting multiple batches of multiple pipe sizes (from 1/2" to 8"
Fissure cracks (by which I mean long, up to 2 to 3 feet on the 8" pipework) seem to be the biggest problem, and the flanges seem to develop from a single point.
I'm thinking that as this is affecting all sizes of pipework, both lengths and fittings, that it may be something removing the plasticizers from the material itself.
Incoming water is normal potable water, dosed on site with chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) to about 1.5 ppm, filtered in the multi media filters, chlorine removed with sodium bisulphite, softened in exchange resin, and then re-dosed with chlorine. This problem is showing itself on pipework carrying water raw, after chlorine dosing and after bisulphite dosing.
Any ideas, anyone?
Michael