Have you every seen anything like this....

[Bartman]

Although I'm new to this forum, I'm a member of a number of other forums and the admin of several of them. While I could have posted this question on one of those, bikers, pilots and computer nerds usually know nothing about plumbing, so here I am!

A friend of mine lives in Callahan, Florida. Yesterday evening, after dinner, we walked outside and heard a noise coming from his well/pump house. Inside, water was spraying everywhere from the failed, 1" ball valve.

No big deal. Kill the power, shutoff the water coming from the well with a different ball valve (the natural pressure from the well is about 10psi) and head to Home Depot to get the necessary materials to fix the issue.

After cutting out all the bad/failed components and re-plumbing everything, we took some time to look closely at the failed and deformed parts.

It's been HOT here in northeast Florida recently. 100° days and inside the pump house, I'm guessing it easily gets to 120°. There is plenty of ventilation. No worries about frost or cold weather in the winter.

Normal working pressure on the system is 75psi. He has 1" PVC supplying the house and from there, it's a typical, slab on grade install.

Here is my question...have you ever seen PVC do this! Is this from the heat? Is it from pressure? I am not a plumber by any means but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express a few times and know enough to solve most minor plumbing issues but this one has me stumped. I would love to hear some opinions about what might have caused this. I was quite impressed at the holding power of the glue! WOW!!!!!

Now for the good stuff....PICTURES!!!!

In this first image, the horizontal S20 pipe is mushy/pliable on the top and rock hard on the bottom.

Have at it!

 

[Mr_David]

WOW I have never seen that before.
I have seen deformed PVC drain pipe caused by excessive and prolonged hot water passing through it.

PVC will get soft if exposed to enough heat. I would say 120 is pretty hot.
Even more so if the water is not moving in the pipe. the water also gets heated.

heated water will expanded.

Must have been one hell of a hot day.

 

[Matt30]

Thats wild!

 

[havasu]

I just learned something new!

 

[frodo]

seen it before, its caused by using pvc on hot water piping

you can not use pvc on hot water, that is what will happen

on hot water, you must use cpvc

schedule 20, is not to be used as domestic water piping, it loses tinsel strength at 73 degrees

 

[Bartman]

seen it before, its caused by using pvc on hot water piping

you can not use pvc on hot water, that is what will happen

on hot water, you must use cpvc

schedule 20, is not to be used as domestic water piping, it loses tinsel strength at 73 degrees

I agree with your comment about schedule 20 pipe and cpvc, but nowhere in my post did I mention hot water. I talked about his well/pump house. I even described how he has 1" pipe going from the pump house to his house (200' away) and after the pump house, it's a typical, "slab on grade" install. Of course, CPVC is used for all hot water plumbing in the house.

This issue is after the 1 HP pump and before the charcoal filter and water softener. All the other pipe in the pump house is fine. It was this one, small, 3' section of pipe.

I do believe heat had something to do with it, but it has nothing to do with hot water from a water heater. The water coming out of the 600'+ well is cold.

I personally think it has something to do with the high temperatures we've been experiencing recently, in addition to the high heat over the past several years that the pipe has been exposed to. I would think the cold temperature of the water coming out of the well would provide a sufficient heat sink to prevent this kind of pipe deformation, even if the temperature is 120° in the pump house. Maybe not.

 

[Mr_David]

It's been HOT here in northeast Florida recently. 100° days and inside the pump house, I'm guessing it easily gets to 120°.

I personally think it has something to do with the high temperatures we've been experiencing recently, in addition to the high heat over the past several years that the pipe has been exposed to. I would think the cold temperature of the water coming out of the well would provide a sufficient heat sink to prevent this kind of pipe deformation, even if the temperature is 120° in the pump house. Maybe not.

If the water is NOT flowing for awhile and in a room that is 120 it will eventually heat up the water sitting in the pipes. That water being heated will expand and increase pipe pressure if no one is pulling water through it.