plumbing sump in basement. PVC leaking

[bkweibley]

Well guys, I finally finished plumbing my sump in my basement last night. Plugged in my Mag Drive18 that is pushing water back up to my DT and quickly noticed that water was coming out of almost every joint on the PVC from the pump to the DT. The drain side though is fine. Im assuming this is happening because of all of the pressure of the pump trying to push the water 11 ft up? What is the best way to fix this?


EDIT: Talking to a buddy at work, he had mentioned that I should have used a primer before putting the pvc glue on? There is no way im going to be able to get the pipes apart though at this point, Id have to cut them out and just start over. Is there any way I can fix this without having to toss the pipe and starting over with new?

 

[Waters]

Unfortunately you are better off cutting and starting over. There are ways to fix minimal leaks but if you are leaking at every joint, replace it now rather than have issues down the road.

 

[bkweibley]

Unfortunately you are better off cutting and starting over. There are ways to fix minimal leaks but if you are leaking at every joint, replace it now rather than have issues down the road.

They are small leaks not total gushers, but they are at most of the joints

 

[Waters]

I personally would still start over. The last thing you need is to have a full reef tank set up with leaking pvc. If you didn't already, make sure if/when you re-do it that you use unions whenever possible.

 

[Fin]

Sounds like more of an issue of technique when gluing up the joints. I would definitely always use primer (I prefer clear), but it is not absolutely necessary. When gluing up PVC joints, I always evenly apply cement to both sides of the joint. Then when joining, I push the two pieces together and then turn ¼ turn to make sure the cement seats evenly. Then I wipe off the excess cement with a paper towel.

If it were me, I would start over and do it right. But, you can also try to glob cement to the outside of all of the leaking joints. This will only work if the surface is completely dry - if it works at all. It won't look very neat, but it is a possible solution. You can also use 2-part epoxy putty and go all the way around all of the leaking joints with the putty. Again, dry surface area works best. I have done this before on an area where appearance was not critical, but a nice neat plumbing job looks so much better.

Don't try to stop the leaks with silicone. While it may stop it initially, silicone does not adhere permanently to PVC and will eventually start to leak again.

 

[JMSKI333]

+1 on using clear primer. (Code required a purple primer so the inspector can see that you used it)

Trust me, you will not get it to stop leaking without redoing it with primer. We have a hard enough time getting a drain line to stop leaking let alone a pressurized one like yours.

Chalk it up to a leasson learned and redo it. You have all the measurments so you should move a little quicker this time.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Sounds like more of an issue of technique when gluing up the joints. I would definitely always use primer (I prefer clear), but it is not absolutely necessary. When gluing up PVC joints, I always evenly apply cement to both sides of the joint. Then when joining, I push the two pieces together and then turn ¼ turn to make sure the cement seats evenly. Then I wipe off the excess cement with a paper towel.

A big +1.....do it over again.


I'd also consider another pump. MAG's are not pressure pumps and do a very poor job in pushing water "up." A quick calculation of a 1 inch pipe going up 11 feet, and that MAG is only putting out 668 gph....and this doesn't include any elbows, unions, horizontal runs, etc. Consider another "pressure" pump.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Sounds like more of an issue of technique when gluing up the joints. I would definitely always use primer (I prefer clear), but it is not absolutely necessary. When gluing up PVC joints, I always evenly apply cement to both sides of the joint. Then when joining, I push the two pieces together and then turn ¼ turn to make sure the cement seats evenly. Then I wipe off the excess cement with a paper towel.

If it were me, I would start over and do it right. But, you can also try to glob cement to the outside of all of the leaking joints. This will only work if the surface is completely dry - if it works at all. It won't look very neat, but it is a possible solution. You can also use 2-part epoxy putty and go all the way around all of the leaking joints with the putty. Again, dry surface area works best. I have done this before on an area where appearance was not critical, but a nice neat plumbing job looks so much better.

Don't try to stop the leaks with silicone. While it may stop it initially, silicone does not adhere permanently to PVC and will eventually start to leak again.

Agreed. Your not going to stop the leaks by patching them.
When glueing the pvc, twist the pipe back and forth while pushing them together, this will strengthen the bond, twist until its difficult to twist, once you've done this, yo can use the pipe immediately.