HDPE Conduit

Is there any way besides Ferncos to join HDPE conduit?

After only having the choice of WoW for internet (Frontier offers DSL but it was down so much it was worthless) we now have both Comcast and Frontier running fiber underground in our area. I'm wanting run PV wire between buildings and was having issues with the cost of conduit and wire. I was talking to their boring crew and their boss about my solar setup. They offered all of their conduit cutoffs to me but they range from 5' to 30' pieces so I'm going to have to do a lot of couplings. Evidently glue won't stick to HDPE. My electrician said he'd just duct tape them as it's going to get water in it regardless. All 2" and I need to go ~220'. Ferncos aren't that expensive, just wondering if there's a better way.

Ugh. All those internal edges from all the couplings...

Expect a nasty wire pull with potential wire jacketing damage..

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't do this.

Not sure of the price there in the US but HDPE is typically less than $50 for 1" 1/2 x 300' your likely to spend more than that on labor trying to pull through all those snags.

I can't find much much, but from what I did find pricing is roughly $2/foot, but no one appears to have it outside industrial suppliers and it's not significantly cheaper than PVC. PVC comes in 10' sticks so I'm probably going to end up with the same number of joints. And I'm only going to be pulling 5 #10 through 2" pipe.

I don't know if a heat fused jointing machine is something you could rent for a day...

teal95 said:

I can't find much much, but from what I did find pricing is roughly $2/foot, but no one appears to have it outside industrial suppliers and it's not significantly cheaper than PVC. PVC comes in 10' sticks so I'm probably going to end up with the same number of joints. And I'm only going to be pulling 5 #10 through 2" pipe.

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$600 for a 100m roll????? Wow maybe I should start shipping it to the US

teal95 said:

I can't find much much, but from what I did find pricing is roughly $2/foot, but no one appears to have it outside industrial suppliers and it's not significantly cheaper than PVC. PVC comes in 10' sticks so I'm probably going to end up with the same number of joints. And I'm only going to be pulling 5 #10 through 2" pipe.

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HDPE water pipe is structurally and materially the same thing. Only it's black or blue.

Perhaps it's cheaper.

Or maybe you could take all your short pieces to the pipe mill, where they could grind it up and re-extrude it as one piece ;-)

v_green57 said:

HDPE water pipe is structurally and materially the same thing. Only it's black or blue.

Perhaps it's cheaper.

Or maybe you could take all your short pieces to the pipe mill, where they could grind it up and re-extrude it as one piece ;-)

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Water pipe typically has thinner wall as standard due to the water pressure keeping it rigid but thick wall can be purchased which as you pointed out is in essence identical.

ThaiTaffy said:

Water pipe typically has thinner wall as standard due to the water pressure keeping it rigid but thick wall can be purchased which as you pointed out is in essence identical.

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Thinwall pipe has few users as you CANNOT count on 24x7 pressure within to keep it from being crushed by backfill. Only an uninformed real cheapskate would use it. The only HDPE thinwall pipe in widespread use in CONUS is drip irrigation tubing, which is typically laying on the surface or buried only a few inches. All the 1" + HDPE I've been around was always SDR90/SCHED40.

Other countries = ?

v_green57 said:

Thinwall pipe has few users as you CANNOT count on 24x7 pressure within to keep it from being crushed by backfill. Only an uninformed real cheapskate would use it. The only HDPE thinwall pipe in widespread use in CONUS is drip irrigation tubing, which is typically laying on the surface or buried only a few inches. All the 1" + HDPE I've been around was always SDR90/SCHED40.

Other countries = ?

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SDR90 or 9? I thought the wall thickness got lower the higher the sdr number? I typically use sdr9/pn20 which at 2" is about a 5mm wall.
Thailand makes alot of plastics as it's one of the largest producers of rubber and plastics in the world (lots of latex trees here so tyre manufacturers love the place) typically even in rural areas there's factories making anything from pvc from boats to conduit.

ThaiTaffy said:

SDR90 or 9? I thought the wall thickness got lower the higher the sdr number? I typically use sdr9/pn20 which at 2" is about a 5mm wall.
Thailand makes alot of plastics as it's one of the largest producers of rubber and plastics in the world (lots of latex trees here so tyre manufacturers love the place) typically even in rural areas there's factories making anything from pvc from boats to conduit.

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Oops...you are correct. Fumble fingers on tablet virtual keyboard.

SDR9 or 11 most common, depending on diameter.

v_green57 said:

Oops...you are correct. Fumble fingers on tablet virtual keyboard.

SDR9 or 11 most common, depending on diameter.

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Sdr17 is what they typically use here but as you said that's worthless for anything other than ground laid irrigation but sadly education is lacking here especially within trades hence why I end up doing everything myself or training lads on the job to work to better standards.