Reflections on Water Pipe
Comments on HDPE, Black water pipe
by Steve Freeman
A typical use of HDPE black water pipe is to use it above ground,
in a fence line to supply portable water supply.
Watering livestock in a MiG system requires more planning than any other part of the project. HDPE pipe used with Plasson quick couplers and laid on top of the ground, gives flexibility for the times of the year when you're not having hard freezes. Put freezeproof waterers at one end of the paddock, to be used when grazing during the winter, and the grass is dormant. This way, the cattle cause much less damage walking back over previously grazed areas to water. The other times of the year, above ground water systems can be used to allow you better utilization of your pasture by dividing it with portable fencing, and bringing the water to the smaller paddocks instead of using lanes.
When using "black pipe" in the past, I thought of it in the same way as I thought of the cheap polywire I used to use. It would last about 5 years, above ground, before it began to have so many breaks and leaks that it needed to be replaced. Well, the black pipe I was using back then is not even related to the HDPE pipe Powerflex now sells. This pipe is extremely tough, and can be used either above or below ground. I don't understand all the technical data that accompanies PVC and HDPE pipe, but I do understand this simple test. Take a five foot length of 1.5 PVC pipe and hit it against a piece of angle iron. Splinters all over! Now take a five foot length of 1.5" HDPE pipe and hit it on the same piece of angle iron. Hardly a dent. Think of this as rocks falling on your pipe during the back-fill, and you can see why I've switched completely to HDPE pipe for our above and below ground waterlines in these rocky Ozark hills. Try this test when it's cold and the results are even more dramatic. HDPE pipe is almost burst-proof. Not freeze proof, but burst proof.
Municipalities all over the country are switching to HDPE pipe because of the ease and flexibility of installation, ability to flex during earthquakes without breaking, and because bedding the pipe in sand to protect it during back-filling, as is often done with PVC, is unnecessary. Coming in 500ft rolls, it has fewer joints than PVC, which usually comes in 20' sticks. The industry expects a 100 year life {below ground} for HDPE. When the joints are done correctly, it is much less prone to leakage than PVC. That brings us to one of the two weakness of HDPE, and the ways PowerFlex is working to overcome them.
Unless he had a joint machine made especially for HDPE pipe, a farmer had to use the old hose clamp and fittings to make joints. This pipe has a very thick wall and a small torch had to be used to soften the pipe enough to allow the fittings to slide in to place. When you tightened the clamps over the heated pipe it made a very good joint, but it wasn't as quick, and maybe not as professional looking as we would like. Powerflex have New Zealand customers who have moved their dairy operations to Missouri. They were very familiar with HDPE pipe and asked us to find and make available the fittings they used back in NZ. We found the fittings, and now we are offering them to our other customers. A full description of the Hansen fittings will be found on this page. We're quite excited about adding the Hansen fittings to our product line, as this allows a very professional and long lasting joint to go with the long lived pipe.
The other weakness in using HDPE is in rolling it out. Three quarter and one inch pipe aren't tough to roll out, but when you get into the larger diameters it's a slow process. Some of our customers trench the pipe in, and the rolls of pipe go on a reel that pulls behind the trencher. But for those of us who don't use a trencher, and have to roll the pipe out by hand we have a few tips to follow.
First, notice the pipe has bands or tape that segment the roll. Do not cut them all at once! The idea is to cut the outside segment and begin unrolling the pipe, after securing the outside end to something solid. When you come to the next band, cut it and continue unrolling, and keep on like this until you come to the end. Now I've been told most of our customers can figure this out, but as someone who didn't, I can speak from experience when I tell you, don't cut all the bands at once!
Second, don't let the pipe play out from the side. Unroll the pipe and allow it to play out straight from under the roll. This will allow the pipe to lay flat. If it does kink you can twist it and get it back flat again, but it's a bother. It takes about 20-30 minutes to roll out a 500' roll of 1" HDPE pipe.
We have one of our manufacturers coming up with an over-sized Spinning Jenny to play out the HDPE rolls of pipe. We're sure some of our customers have or will be making their own. We've laid out thousands of feet of HDPE pipe by hand, so don't feel you have to have a Spinning Jenny to roll it out. It will be nice to have the choice, and as soon as they are available, we will announce it on our website
Note: we plan on adding many more comments & how-to articles on water pipe in the near future. To see this pipe and check out our new Hansen fittings for this pipe Click here
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