Herbie Plumbing

reaper7534 · Feb 28, 2018

From what I've read, most people recommend not using 90's on the drains because of lower flow. 45's seem to be the way they go. I saw on the BRS that they ran a test and showed hardly any flow difference between the two. Of course, this was on pressurized and not a drain system.

Would I really be hampering the Herbie by using a couple 90's on each drain or am I looking at creating air pockets. I can probably figure out how to get 45's in there if need be, just want to keep options open. I definitely want to stay with rigid pvc and not spa-flex.

Both the siphon and emergency will be 1" as well as my return which will be plumbed up over the back. This will be a pretty straight run with the exception of a small manifold that will be fed.

FartyParty · Feb 28, 2018

I currently run a herbie with 1" and 2x 90 degree bends, with a 3mm adjustable airfeed on the air cap. With an overflow water level about 5mm above the bends I'm getting average 520 gph on the Apex monitor, which matches my 10x/hour water turnover requirements for Triton. Its worth noting that i only got this much flow after removing the flexhose tips on the dual return line, which were restricting my flow almost 40%.

Redleg · Feb 28, 2018

If you can find long sweep 90s that would be ideal. If not a regular 45 coupled with a street 45 will give you the lower restriction/higher flow. But both of these options come with the drawback of needing more space. If space is an issue stick with regular 90s

reaper7534 · Feb 28, 2018

I think space will be at a premium, I'll know more once I can place the sump in there and get a feel. I think I may be stuck with regular 90's, but it's hard to visualize it in my head, so the 45's may happen. Will probably get most of my plumbing supplies from BRS, if not all and didn't see the long sweeps on their site. On that note.....plumbing is expensive. I think I'm looking at around 350 bucks to do it all in schedule 80 along with some colored PVC.....
'

Redleg · Feb 28, 2018

Long sweeps are hard to find. I'm not even sure if they are made in sch 80. Most likely you will only find them at a plumbing supply house or online. You would probably be better off not buying from BRS. Their prices are high for pipe fittings and vavles.

ca1ore · Mar 1, 2018

You don't need to use Sch80. HD has lots of sweep elbows (though they are mostly shallow shoulder DWV so make sure to support it). It's not so much that regular 90s are bad, its just that they make it all too easy to end up with a length of drain that pitches the wrong way, and that can be a problem. I have that on one of my drains and it takes forever to recover the full siphon. Of course, the easiest/best solution is to use flex PVC LOL.

reaper7534 · Mar 1, 2018

ca1ore said:
You don't need to use Sch80. HD has lots of sweep elbows (though they are mostly shallow shoulder DWV so make sure to support it). It's not so much that regular 90s are bad, its just that they make it all too easy to end up with a length of drain that pitches the wrong way, and that can be a problem. I have that on one of my drains and it takes forever to recover the full siphon. Of course, the easiest/best solution is to use flex PVC LOL.

I'll admit, I was going for SCH80 for aesthetics. I have found sweeps at a reasonable cost and there is always Krylon.

Redleg said:
Long sweeps are hard to find. I'm not even sure if they are made in sch 80. Most likely you will only find them at a plumbing supply house or online. You would probably be better off not buying from BRS. Their prices are high for pipe fittings and vavles.

Wow, did some shopping and between pvcfittingsonline, Amazon and BRS..... it's like a 100 bucks less.