# Pyrex waste system



## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

My boss and I are looking at an RFP this morning for a lab waste system. Anybody have any experience running Pyrex? I’ve run polyethylene before with olives and what look like slip joint nuts for lab waste and even for a bar once. 

Is it worth doing? Is it worth getting trained up on?


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

jakewilcox said:


> My boss and I are looking at an RFP this morning for a lab waste system. Anybody have any experience running Pyrex? I’ve run polyethylene before with olives and what look like slip joint nuts for lab waste and even for a bar once.
> 
> Is it worth doing? Is it worth getting trained up on?





Everything new is worth doing if you can bid it correctly. I would say yes to anything out of the ordinary. Call the supplier and have a rep come out to show you.


What's the worst that happens? You fail at something you've never done before? No shame in that. Plenty of shame in not learning new stuff though.








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## ironandfire (Oct 9, 2008)

I didn't think they still made Pyrex. Talk about spendy ! Pulled some out back in the 80's, a nice piece of 1 1/2 or 2" by about 6' long, can't remember. Saved it for awhile as I was going to make a bong out of it. Ended up throwing it away.
Last acid waste I did was dual containment PVC , kind of a fusion weld type thing.


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## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

Well, we no-go’ed it. 
The company I work for is a design/build company. Our engineers didn’t like the way this was done and my boss passed on it. 

The last and only acid waste I did was polyethylene pipe with fittings that worked kind of like slip joints with washers that were cut in to the pipe. I think they were called an olive. That was for the science building at a community college. 

I did one other one with that pe pipe for a bar. The bar was on the second story and had positively rotted out dwv copper with in like 2 years. Then we re-piped it with ci. That rotted out in like another two years. We put polyethylene in and I haven’t heard from them since. 

I was kind of looking forward to something new. I guess it wasn’t to be.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

jakewilcox said:


> ................
> I did one other one with that pe pipe for a bar. The bar was on the second story and had positively rotted out dwv copper with in like 2 years. Then we re-piped it with ci. That rotted out in like another two years. We put polyethylene in and I haven’t heard from them since. ...............





Why didn't you guys just use pvc or abs? Both are pretty chemical resistant and I am sure would have been cheaper.

Also, what the hell were they serving?!?!? :surprise: 

I assume it was all the piss rotting out the pipe?



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## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

It was only the bar. There was no restroom tied in to that system where we piped it in PE. It was for a country club and a super ritzy one at that (like Porsches, Ferraris etc. in the parking lot). The building was over 3 stories, and commercial which made ABS and PVC out. Either would have been just fine, I actually suggested ABS to the management but told them it was not to code. They did not like that (which is fine). 

After the second failure, we suggested the acid waste pipe. It was a hand-wash sink and three floor sinks with continuous wastes dumping in to them, plus the odd glass chiller, and various (soda, chiller, etc.) drains behind a bar dumping in to the floor sinks. 

I have been told acids and alcohols combined with sugars from bars can be problematic for copper. We were shocked when we were told they had a leak and we came back to CI that was just straight rotten -kind of like when you get in to a 60 year old piece of bell and spigot CI that has been buried all of that time. It was just weak and leaking at the bands. We pulled it apart and the ends of the pipe had been eroded so badly, I couldn't put it back together; it had to be re-piped.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

jakewilcox said:


> ...........We were shocked when we were told they had a leak and we came back to CI that was just straight rotten -kind of like when you get in to a 60 year old piece of bell and spigot CI that has been buried all of that time. It was just weak and leaking at the bands. We pulled it apart and the ends of the pipe had been eroded so badly, I couldn't put it back together; it had to be re-piped.







Why did you suggest abs and not pvc? Would pvc not be to code?




Any cast iron made after the 50's is terrible. No-hub cast iron is the worst. We have a school that has two large buildings with all no-hub drains, we get a couple calls a year for pipe and fittings that have corroded and then split wide open because of the stresses induced during casting, I presume from cooling too quickly.







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## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

Good question.

PVC was not to local code in a building (for a sewer line it is fine). I think because of issues with sway bracing (earthquake sway). There are places that it is accepted now, but some of the local codes don't still don't allow it. 

We pipe a lot with cast iron around here (for commercial buildings anyway). Its longevity is fine, but plastic is way better. But there are the sway bracing issues plus local codes. 

In my house, I have cast iron from the 50s. It even has 1-1/2" galv with duham fittings (not even 2") from the laundry tray and kitchen. This is totally the case of the cobbler's kids not having shoes. It would take me less than a weekend to deal with it, but the idea of being in my crawl space for a day just PI$$ES me off. So, yeah. Im a lazy jerk when it comes to it.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

jakewilcox said:


> ..........Its longevity is fine, but plastic is way better. But there are the sway bracing issues plus local codes. .........





The fact that you think the longevity of the pipe you're installing "is fine", just goes to show it's crap. Piping systems are supposed to last a minimum of 50 years. That means you should not be replacing any pipe you installed unless you did something wrong. By the time it fails you should be dead.




I guess if it's against code than you're phucked, no-hub is still garbage though.


They should make no-hub pvc.


I also wish they made double street sweat fittings, would be handy sometimes.







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## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

skoronesa said:


> The fact that you think the longevity of the pipe you're installing "is fine", just goes to show it's crap.
> .


What do you mean by this?


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

skoronesa said:


> The fact that you think the longevity of the pipe you're installing "is fine", just goes to show it's crap. ............







jakewilcox said:


> What do you mean by this?





Any piping system should last so long that you as the installer can't render an opinion on which will last longer because you won't live long enough to see either fail. So the fact you have developed an opinion that from having seen it fail in any length of time you can observe means it is subpar.


An 80 year old plumber shouldn't see the drain pipe he put in at 20 fail.



To put it another way, if someone asks me which will last longer, pvc or abs, my answer is if they are _properly installed _I don't know as I have never seen either corrode apart under _normal conditions._


Or to put it a third way, those buildings I mentioned were built about 20 years ago. We've been replacing no-hub pipe and fittings at a good rate in them for the past 5 years. Everytime I go in the drop ceiling to replace one line I look around and see others that already have cracks or rust bubbles. Is 15/20 years a long time? It's a quarter of my life so to me maybe it is, but for a piping system 20 years is abysmally short for a failure window.




I regularly take out pipe/fittings that have lasted over 100 years, many of it is just to change something and the pipe is still good.








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