Chilled water pipes

from my experience there are few reasons for short durability of PVC pipes :

1. are the PVC PIPES ARE EXPOSED TO UV RADIATION (SUNLIGHT)?if so - you should use polypropylene pipes.

2.does your flow have continuous changes in level of pressure? if so it damages at lower pressure than it designed for.

3. does your system has sudden valve closing/opening during operation? if so - it can crack the pipes if there is no consideration of the flexibility of the system.

Dear Eyal

Thanks for your reply, actually yes. we have sudden changes in the flow / pressure.

RGDS

I think you would find (e.g. in a check online of educational institution etc. specifications ) that many longtime chilled water Owners have sort of gravitated to cement mortar lined ductile iron pipes for at least their buried service.

I think I replied to this question yesterday. In the USA I have used mild steel for chilled water because it is way cheaper than stainless and more durable than PVC. I have ran it in many colleges, paper mills, and commercial buildings all over the southeast USA. I have ran copper pipe for chilled water in the past but not very much in the last 10 years. I am assuming this is because of the price and the fact that mild steel is more durable than copper as well. In my 30 years of playing with pipe I can't remember one time that I was asked to do a chilled water system in PVC. I am sure PVC would work and it would be allot cheaper but to me it is not durable enough for an industrial/commercial environment.

pipewelder

Thaks for your valuable comments.