Head pressures, are your elbows making a difference?

[domination2580]

What kinds of clowns you guys attempting?

 

[atoll]

So what about sweep 90's? Are they expected to perform no better than 2 - 45's?

Yep, a more fair comparison would have been between the 90 degree elbows and 90 degree swept bends, If people don't use 90 degree elbows then they are most likely to use 90 degree swept bends. I don't know of any of my friends that would use 2 x 45 degree bends in place of a 90 degree elbow and would use a 90 degree swept bend instead. Come on BRS you should know this I am surprised at you.

 

[McArcher]

ahh, I was thinking of the fittings. Still, sch 80 fittings are overkill but, the gray looks much better than the white.

The ID of the fittings is the same whether you use 40 or 80 so you could still use schedule 80 fittings

 

[Jeff Evrard]

I would like to see a video about mixing Kalk w/ vinegar in a more in depth manner. I know it is a lot like vodka dosing so I know that it is tricky but any more info wold be nice.
Plus I have a great Rose Bubble tip tank w/ no clown in it. A few juveniles would match up great!

 

[McArcher]

Ryan-
Sign me up for clown babies! I'd love to see them hanging out in my RBTA.

 

[Ryanbrs Verified Sponsor]

The ID of the fittings is the same whether you use 40 or 80 so you could still use schedule 80 fittings

The ID of the Sch 80 is smaller. It's the OD which is the same : )

 

[TylerS]

I've read many times over the years to increase your unions and valves by at least one size because they are flow restrictors. I cannot ever recall coming across info recommending to do the same for 90's and 45's. Anyone know if this would have a measurable impact?
Also, does chamfering the inside of the pipes have a noticeable effect?
Regarding sweeps- would you be better off to use flexible pvc (or bend your own pvc) if a sweep was not an option? It seems flex pvc turns, and bent rigid pvc turns, are rarely if ever circular. A cross section of the said turns has an oval shape.

Every time you upsize or down size the pipe there's a head loss (reduction in flow) associated with it. You would be much better off upsizing the entire return line.

This is touched on a little in the video, but overall the 90's, 2x45, long radius 90, etc. are not near as important as the pipe diameter.
In the video example the pipe diameter is kept constant at 1". The sicce 3, 3.5, and 5 all have 1" outlets, but the sicce 10 has a 1.5" outlet, and you see the flow not matching the rating on the 5, and 10. If the pipe was upsized to 1.5" on the 3, 3.5, and 5, and 2" on the 10 I would guess you'd see very little flow loss on any of the tests.

 

[randyBRS]

ahh, I was thinking of the fittings. Still, sch 80 fittings are overkill but, the gray looks much better than the white.

Here's one of the places I've found for the color fittings. They are furniture grade, but at the low pressures in most of our applications they work fine!

https://formufit.com/collections/furniture-grade-pvc-fittings

 

[pfoxgrover]

Here's one of the places I've found for the color fittings. They are furniture grade, but at the low pressures in most of our applications they work fine!

https://formufit.com/collections/furniture-grade-pvc-fittings

Thanks for the link. Love the videos!

Would you consider trying an experiment with sweep 90s vs regular 90s?

 

[McArcher]

The ID of the Sch 80 is smaller. It's the OD which is the same : )

On pipe, yes. But the fittings are opposite. That's why you can use Sch 80 fittings on Sch 40 pipe.

 

[don_chuwish]

I'm speculating that any gain from the two gentler 45s is lost by the increased number of joints. To connect two 45s you end up creating extra turbulence as water flows past the additional rough edges. Chamfering & smoothing the inside edges will help some, but it's just not as smooth as a single 90. That's why I'd like to see the sweep 90 tested as well. Unfortunately they are way more expensive and not so easy to find.

 

[Salty1962]

I have always tried to use 45s for my plumbing for this reason. Just takes a little more planning.

 

[Mebeknob]

Now to add sweeping 90s to the mix! Also I want to compare against power consumption. If the flow is the same but the power used is less, there is an advantage! With pool plumbing, adding sweeping 90s in lieu of standard 90s dropped my pumps power consumed by nearly 20%!

 

[Jgarcia]

How much do barb fittings restrict flows?

 

[randyBRS]

How much do barb fittings restrict flows?

Given what we found in this video, I'd estimate that the impact from barbed fittings are probably as little of an impact as 45 and 90 degree PVC elbows.

-Randy

 

[Nathan Belz]

ahh, I was thinking of the fittings. Still, sch 80 fittings are overkill but, the gray looks much better than the white.

The BRS white fittings are actually cool. Put them with red pipe and you have something very similar to Vertex or a few other brands. This really only applies though with colored PVC and not the grey/white standard stuff. Just my .02

 

[Nathan Belz]

I would love to see this test performed on drain lines, or does everyone think they would perform the same as a pump driven setup?

 

[ReefHog]

I used one inch pvc electrical conduit sweeping 90 for bends where space allowed. $2 a piece at any hardware or big box store.

 

[Anthonyl]

I was thinking about using the electrical conduit for plumbing because of the long sweeping elbows. Im glad to see that other people do too.

 

[pfoxgrover]

I was thinking about using the electrical conduit for plumbing because of the long sweeping elbows. Im glad to see that other people do too.

They make them for plumbing. These are sch 80 sweep 90s (in the attached picture). Haven't fired them up yet but I can't imagine they create as much head pressure as regular 90s. I would guess that 2 x 45s is no better than a regular 90 (in this experiment) because of the added turbulence of using two connectors instead of one. Since they never tested with sweep 90s and not knowing any better, I used them for my new build. The picture is of one of my return lines.