Home Depot Plumbing

I am trying to run water from the floor input valve to a frost free sillcock outside the shop. The input is about a foot above the floor and the sillcock is about 4 feet. Using 90 deg elbows and straight and straight pipes, the total run is about 79 inches.

I bought a 6ft Frost King heating tape but it's too short to do the whole run and the next size is much too long.

I was looking for parts at HD to make part of the run at 45 degrees. This would leave me with tape to spare.

The "plumbing associate" and his supervisor both claimed that this can not be done because of some physics wierdness that makes no sense but not being a plumber I went ahead with the right angles.

Sure enough, when I finished it, the tape is too short and I felt kind of stupid for accepting the wisdom of these guys.

What possible difference can it make whether the water makes a 90 up or a 45 deg up?

Thanks,

Jack

a while ago i replaced a shower valve in a garage wall it had been there probabaly 30 years it was heat traced all the fittings were 90s i reinstalled another valve an wrapped it the same way it has never frozen....why don't you just install a drain valve, so at the end of the season just drain the line
and you wont freeze....

heat trace is i think the same thing you are talking about its got a thermostat on it it heats up and shuts down on temp talk to an electrician and they could better explain it and probably make it whatever length you need

I don't know what you mean by "heat traced" but the Frost King heat tape comes in a limited number of lengths and 6 feet is the closest to what I need. They claim it can be 3 feet shorter than the pipe but that seems a bit hard to believe.

The frost free sillcock drains out from the shop side so it will not freeze and I just need to protect the inside pipe down and over to the hole in the floor.

I need access to water all year around for the sheep and chickens.

We had a disastrous fire in December and the entire shop and barn were leveled. We rebuilt the shop but have not insulated it or made any arrangements about heating it yet so until or unless we do that, it will be near outside temp in Winter.

I am hoping to at least get water out to the silllcock year round for now.

Thanks,

js

Look up frostex heat tape. You can make that any length you want and it is safe. You can buy it at a plumbing supply house and most will cut to length for you. Then you buy the ends.

How about a picture

TomFOhio said:

Look up frostex heat tape. You can make that any length you want and it is safe. You can buy it at a plumbing supply house and most will cut to length for you. Then you buy the ends.

Click to expand...

I now have buyer's remorse. I particularly like the idea of eliminating the relay as a failure mechanism.

On the other hand, the technology used in the Frostex sounds like pie in the sky and the explanation is not very satisfying even to one with a pretty heavy electronics background.

To save bandwidth... a pic?

I can do that but I think we have drifted off the point of the posting which was...

Is there any technical reason why water should not be run up at 45 degs as opposed to right angle elbows. It's only going to an outside spigot and the run is only about 6 ft.

js

It’s under pressure....you could make the pipe go in loopty loops and it will still flow

Matt30 said:

It’s under pressure....you could make the pipe go in loopty loops and it will still flow

Click to expand...

Seems intuitive but these guys at Home Depot were pretty adamant.

Moving on, I have now seen several references to "application tape" and Googling doesn't help much understanding what it is. Does not seem to have anything to do with plumbing.

Seems like a perfect application for duct tape so that is what I used.
Am I missing anything?

js

Pictures. I am not going to respond to something someone told you unless I see what it is they were looking at. You realize every house and every situation is different so pictures really help, me at least.

I thought you were concerned about keeping your pipes from freezing and not having the correct length for your heat tape and also the safety factor so if I was wrong please disregard my earlier post.

TomFOhio said:

I thought you were concerned about keeping your pipes from freezing and not having the correct length for your heat tape and also the safety factor so if I was wrong please disregard my earlier post.

Click to expand...

If you read the original post, the last sentence is the question I was asking.

If I used a diagonal run instead of right angles, the tape would be exactly the right length but I let the "experts" at Home Depot talk me out of the 45 run which creates the other problem.



js

There is no problem go for it.
Its either you listen to the plumbers on this forum. Or you listen to 2 bananas that work at home depot... you choose

Went back to Home Depot today and got a piece of pipe cut to needed length and threaded so I could re-do the job as I had originally planned.

Kudos to Home Depot for the free threading as long as I purchase the pipe there.

The attached pic shows the installation. The heat tape is just hanging there because I want to keep an eye on it for a while for leaks before covering it up.

I was plagued with leaks before but this time I have yet to see a drop. Guess I didn't know how to use the Teflon tape and was too stingy with it.
And most of the joints where I used the pipe compound leaked. I suspect the threads are a real problem now that China has taken over that product.

Not obvious how to attach a pic. Will be back later.

js

Nice job. You could have run straight to a 90 and then up if that is what you asking originally.

CT18 said:

Nice job. You could have run straight to a 90 and then up if that is what you asking originally.

Click to expand...

Just the opposite. The diagonal reduces the amount of heat tape by abut 6" which makes a perfect for the 6ft tape.

The guys at HD said one can not run water pipe at angles other than 90 and tried to explain why but lost me in rubbish physics.

I took his word on "faith" and did it his way but decided that it was really rubbish and went back to my orig 45 deg run.

As a point of interest, it started leaking again, this time around the union.

js

What you did is fine. Looks good. Tape it up and be done with it. They were probably trying to sell you more than you needed. Or they think 90's are a fitting of Gods creation.