You can use the green sewer pipe if you can't find white. It's about $30 for a 10' section. Look in the yellow pages for "plumbing supply."

Thanks Cole - great to see you're still giving us a hand here above the loud chirping of the crickets in the forum lately :-(

I'm trying to get PVC meeting NSF #61 (potable water). The way it is going I'll maybe settle for NSF#14 (meets health water standards right up to but not including drinking water).

Most of the sewer pipe I found has recycled content or a foam center layer and I want to try to afford a higher grade of plastic than that. The green storm drain pipe, if I am not mistaken, is "SDR-35" instead of sch. 40 in your tip. Are you suggesting it because if it is SDR-35 (does not meet any NSF) then it is less expensive, thin-wall yet *virgin* PVC as a lower cost compromise over the thick solid wall expensive PVC, or just as an alternate to white sewer pipe, which is always made with recycled content in everything I find. Also, do you happen to know if the green pipe is sometimes more brittle to cut and drill?

This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 2:03

Thanks. I know they don't have Menards in Florida, but I put a link below to the product I'm talking about. It is sdr-35, but it's not thinwall. There's no foam. It's about a quart-inch thick at least. These pipes are meant to be dropped into trenches and buried, so they are built to take abuse. The material can be difficult to cut.

Unless you're trying to get an organic certification - and if you can find me a pump made of nothing but food-safe plastic, I would love to see it - then I don't think you'd ever notice any difference.

Here is a link that might be useful: sewer pipe at menards

Cole, You're on to something for sure - that pipe is *virgin* so I'll take a look at it in my next project. Difficulty in tracking down some of that had me make friends with some guys with an extruder and they're already working on my virgin on virgin (it doesn't get better than that when doing hydro without protection) square pipe co-extruded PVC. The outer layer will be UV proof with 6-8% Titanium dioxide if I recall and the inner layer will have the bare minimum which is essentially the formula for potable approved PVC pipes with zero SPF.

But next system will try to hunt down your suggested SDR-35 material which as it turns out is easy to get as virgin. I'll have to call the boys at Charlotte Pipe and get some more info and maybe who nearby might be dealing with the 6". But that's now next time, for the moment I have this 50 sq ft new horizontal problem which I still have no clue how to level on the stuff they call soil here in coastal FL.

As for the plastic certification, lucky for me, in my 12x12 sq ft kingdom I'm the only bureaucrat. Without dwelling on a nauseous subject, the pump argument is right, but the flip side is that the solution to pollution is dilution. The pump has way less than 1 square foot of plastic, and the rest of the system about 32-65 square feet, depending on channel filling. So the pump represents less than 2% of total plastic of which the King grants a concession under the table and looks the other way ;-) Little kingdoms need to be reasonable!

Thanks again for the tip

You need to find an irrigation supply company. In San Diego the two stores to get bigger PVC are Hydro-Scape and Ewing Irrigation, but I doubt they have them in FL. 6 inch sched 40 runs between $4 and $8 per foot and comes in 20 ft lengths.
They also sell a thin wall version for drainage that is cheaper but is still the regular white PVC, not the black sewer ABS.
Another option is the corrugated HDPE pipes sold at home depot and lowes, but only for 4". Those are only $4-$5 for the ten foot length.
Good luck.

Thanks SD grower, I've been pretty envious of some of the HDPE being sold to NFT growers in San Diego from hydroponics outfits. The problem is I can't make use of a pallet load freighted to me, and even in sample amounts the 10-12' channels I've looked at would need to be cut in half and for stubby channels, even UPS shipping of that alone (only 30-50 feet or so) is over $100. and this with the short lengths.

I've not found a *smoothwall* irrigation product that is 6" anywhere to tell the truth thought I'm sure it's out there, except for the PVC. As you knew and I found out, all potable water lines are extra thickwalled, which is cost prohibitive in anything above 2".

I did find locally one interesting product. It is an HDPE/HDPE thin white smooth sleeve over a conventional standard black corrugated, with smooth interior black pipe, dual construction.

I have questions about that though to resolve. Like will the corrugation be generally causing more places for micro-organism growth and how well can I cut holes in it in either a vertical or NFT horizontal slope. I would have looked further since it is economical, but the black HDPE for these economical options is probably not a good idea for a recirculating system, it seems a bit too much in my perception of this. One thing is a small length of it but another is 50' which warms up and was made from:

"Smoothwall Pipe [from ADS] is made with recycled HDPE from post-consumer and industrial sources..."

If we can't find NSF material like potable water PVC, the least I can try for is virgin material and chat with the manufacturer just to be sure there is no additive to avoid.

Even with regular irrigation pipe wherever I would find that, it is no big deal since most of the big diameter is just for sending run-off to the sewer, and the standard is basically just one pass into the fields.

That SDR 35 storm drain stuff Cole mentioned is available in all virgin PVC for some reason and intermediate thickness (just need to find out what sort of hardner they are adding, but likely this is good material), so it could fit the bill in some cases.

If I had a local source for the 6" potable PVC at the lowest end of the range ($4/ft) you got available at those places, I'm in. But where I'm at by now it feels like I'm chasing windmills. Onward Sancho Panza :(

Ewing Irrigation has 8 locations in Florida, they have all types and sizes of PVC, and HDPE including the Panda pipe(white on outside, black on inside).
Tell the salesman what you are building and walk around the yard and check out what they have. I'm sure they will have something you can use.

I'll call a branch tomorrow, there is actually a closeby location. At this old catalog link under Ewing,

http://www.ewing1.com/_media/ews_cat_2006_0700.pdf

this comment is under all their PVC sch 40 pipe, and it really sounds US made which is important to me:

"The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) has approved pipe sizes 1/4" through 12" for use in potable water service"

That's the good stuff.

Come to think of it I bet it's Harvel pipe.

http://www.harvel.com/piping-systems/gf-harvel-pvc-industrial-pipe/schedule-40-80/specifications��"schedule-40

from Harvel's site:
This pipe shall carry the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) seal of approval for potable water applications. All pipe shall be manufactured by GF Harvel.

One minor little detail is the cost which I'll check on and see if this market has is a viable option for me. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again SD

I'm set. Thanks.

Ewing has reasonable pricing. They specialize in PVC here in Florida and their main business is golf courses in this area, and most of their PVC seems to be from JM Eagle. JM Eagle is all US made from US resins. They have Class 200 6" PVC for $3-$4/ft. He can get probably get 6" sch 40, and they all come in 20 ft. lengths.

Type 200 is NSF rated for potable water (#61),

http://jmeagle.com/pdfs/2008%20Submittal%20Data%20Sheets/IPS%20Pressure.pdf

Schedule 40 may be less expensive / slightly thinner since the six inch only is rated for 180 PSI vs. 200 which is the Class 200.

JM Eagle sheet for sch 40 (NSF 14 & 61, potable water)
http://www.jmeagle.com/pdfs/2008%20Submittal%20Data%20Sheets/Solvent%20Weld.pdf

Both in 6 inch have bell-bevels on the end, but that's not a terrible inconvenience. My place only has the 200 stuff but if I want the sch 40 they'll get it from another location, very friendly & helpful about this.

This is high quality PVC, not some sewer pipe made with unknown recycled material (including lead) in some fly-by night Asian factory without oversight that is the low end stuff used for cheap drain/sewer pipe in some home improvement stores.

Eagle's US made product Q&A:
"... impossible for PVC pipe to leach plasticizers, BPA, lead or cadmium, since these arenâÂÂt even used in its manufacture nor are they part of its compound. "