shufflebotlmfao
New Member
i make all my own gear too
fuck with paying some stoner to huff glue while he makes me a system or a grow light
all my gear is homegrown
DIY PVC Hydroponics Build Question
- Thread starter flow
- Start date
fuck with paying some stoner to huff glue while he makes me a system or a grow light
all my gear is homegrown
Ya, I understand. I had a system built out of 6" PVC with 3.75" netpots under MH and HPs that went a good 2 years with no problems either. The thing is if I have to replace potentially thousands of feet of PVC pipe 4 years into using the system, the my entire business model is screwed... really 10 years is the goal. I don't have the cash right now to buy all commercially produced equipment (who does?), so I'm gonna have to do this myself no matter how big a pain in the a$$ it is. I'm being pretty anal about this I know, but I'm an engineer so it's kinda been hammered into me over the years
Ya man I like your system. For herb it's the way to go for sure. I'm only worried about NSF food safe because of possible FDA/USDA inspections if I can get big enough to require certification or whatever it is they do... my research into those areas has barely started, so I'm not sure.
For anyone who is interested, I contacted the guy at: http://hydro-tubes.com/ and got a reply. Here was my question:
"My main question is what is the pvc material you use for the tubes? Is it standard plumbing pvc? I understand standard pvc pipe degrades over time with exposure to UV radiation, but I have not found any information about how long this actually takes. Do these stand up well to relatively high levels of UV radiation, and are they painted? What kind of lifetime is expected of the tubes, pumps, and sprayers? Basically I need to know what kind of maintanence costs can be expected for a system over a several year period. Obviously this will vary depending on what system is used, but if you could give me a general idea it would really help me."
And his reply:
"Hello *flow*, The PVC pipe that we use will last 20 years or more. Their are two different types of PVC pipe that is standard in the plumbing industry, solid wall and cellular core. We only use solid wall. The cellular core is not a good choice for hydroponics. It will not last as long. The pipe is not painted. UV radiation will not have any effect on the PVC pipe that we use. The pumps are high quality mag-drive pumps.
they have a 3 year warranty, but we have pumps that are over 15 years old and they are still in operation. The pumps can be used inline or submersed in the nutrient tank. The sprayers are very inexpensive, but our systems do not require sprayers unless you really want to use them. There is a feeder line inside the 6" PVC pipe that works without the need for sprayers. ALL sprayers will require cleaning or replacing as time passes. We have designed our systems to be as close to maintanence free as possible. Just a basic cleaning is all that is needed between growing cycles."
"My main question is what is the pvc material you use for the tubes? Is it standard plumbing pvc? I understand standard pvc pipe degrades over time with exposure to UV radiation, but I have not found any information about how long this actually takes. Do these stand up well to relatively high levels of UV radiation, and are they painted? What kind of lifetime is expected of the tubes, pumps, and sprayers? Basically I need to know what kind of maintanence costs can be expected for a system over a several year period. Obviously this will vary depending on what system is used, but if you could give me a general idea it would really help me."
And his reply:
"Hello *flow*, The PVC pipe that we use will last 20 years or more. Their are two different types of PVC pipe that is standard in the plumbing industry, solid wall and cellular core. We only use solid wall. The cellular core is not a good choice for hydroponics. It will not last as long. The pipe is not painted. UV radiation will not have any effect on the PVC pipe that we use. The pumps are high quality mag-drive pumps.
they have a 3 year warranty, but we have pumps that are over 15 years old and they are still in operation. The pumps can be used inline or submersed in the nutrient tank. The sprayers are very inexpensive, but our systems do not require sprayers unless you really want to use them. There is a feeder line inside the 6" PVC pipe that works without the need for sprayers. ALL sprayers will require cleaning or replacing as time passes. We have designed our systems to be as close to maintanence free as possible. Just a basic cleaning is all that is needed between growing cycles."
So basically he is claiming they will last 20 years if you use solid wall PVC without any additional treatment. Whether or not this is an exaggeration in an attempt to gain sales is questionable, but I have no reason to doubt his claim other than my usual skepticism of all sales people. In any case I believe that solid wall pvc will last at least 10 years without painting, so I am going ahead with a few prototype builds using untreated solid wall pvc.
