How to solder plastic pipes?

The work of sewage, water supply, heating systems is now difficult to imagine without the use of plastic pipes. They practically replaced steel ones, thereby greatly simplifying the installation of water supply and heating. But in the manufacture of such products, various materials are used, which sometimes causes difficulties in how to connect and how to solder plastic pipes.

About plastics and methods of pipe welding

The main types of pipes are made of PVC, polyethylene and polypropylene. To date, the following connection methods have been developed and are widely used:

  1. In the socket. In domestic conditions, it is most often used for joining pipes of the same cross section when creating a gravity sewer.
  2. Adhesive bonding. There are two types of it:
    • using glue, the whole procedure does not differ from the usual gluing into a single whole of two separate parts;
    • by the "cold welding" method. In this case, the upper part of the plastic softens and the two different parts join together. It is used for joining pipes when creating water supply and sewerage systems.
  3. Soldering or welding. With this approach, the material at the junction is heated in a special apparatus, after which the parts are joined, the molten plastic of the various parts is mixed and, solidifying, turns into a single whole.

The last method is the most common and is used for welding pipes in a domestic environment.

Welding technology

For these purposes, a special apparatus is used, sometimes called a "soldering iron". How it looks - shown in the photo.

To weld pipes, you must set your own mode of operation of the soldering iron, depending on their material and dimensions. So, soldering polypropylene requires a temperature of 260 ° C, and for polyethylene - 220 ° C. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the dependence of the heating and cooling time on the specific parameters of the parts to be welded. As an example, the table below shows data on the soldering modes of polypropylene pipes (for polyethylene pipes, the difference will be insignificant).

Welding conventional pipes

To properly solder plastic pipes, you must follow simple requirements:

  1. Measure the desired pipe size and cut surplus with special scissors included in the soldering iron kit.
  2. Mark the installation location, marking on the pipe the depth to which the pipe will be inserted into the fitting, and alignment marks are applied to both parts to ensure they are joined in the desired position.
  3. Degrease welds.
  4. Turn on the soldering iron, set the required temperature and leave to warm up.
  5. After it is warmed up, the pipe and fitting to be welded are put on the soldering iron, as shown in the photo.

  6. After keeping at the required temperature for the required time, the parts are removed, connected together and left to cool completely.

If everything is done correctly, the result will be a monolithic connection, the photo of which and its section are shown below.

The good quality of welding is evidenced by an even solid bead formed at the point where the pipe enters the fitting. How soldering is carried out in practice is shown in the video:

Brazing of reinforced and metal-plastic pipes

Welding of metallized and reinforced pipes will be more laborious. Depending on their design, the additional layer is either near the surface or in the middle.

  1. In the first case, two layers must be removed - the top one of plastic and the next one of aluminum. For this, a special tool is used - a shaver.

    It is put on the pipe, and when it rotates, excess layers are removed.

    After that, all soldering operations are carried out according to the usual technology.

  2. In cases where the reinforcement layer is deep in the pipe and cannot be removed, a different technique is used. With the help of a facing tool, the part coming out to the cut is removed. This is done so that during welding the vacant space is filled with plastic and thus water is prevented from reaching the reinforcing layer.

After facing, further brazing of the pipes is carried out as usual using a standard soldering iron. The whole procedure, including shaver treatment, is shown here:

Additional information on pipe soldering

The described technology concerns the connection of plastic pipes intended to create a water supply system in a domestic environment. It is the most common, simple and affordable one. With its help, the water supply system can be installed independently and at minimal cost.

However, it is worth noting that there are other pipe soldering technologies that require the use of special equipment and tools. Among these methods, it is worth noting welding with embedded and butt welding. However, due to their rather limited use in domestic conditions, they were not considered.

Welding of plastic pipes provides an opportunity, without significant costs, to create various water supply systems in a domestic environment without the use of rare and special tools. The technology for carrying out the work is quite simple and allows you to independently mount the water supply, heating and hot water supply to any home. The service life of such systems will be determined only by the lifetime of the pipes themselves.

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