Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: Lurn2Burn on October 30, 2019, 02:23:50 PM
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Whats the secret to bending/forming underground insulated pipe? I am trying to get my Rehau pipe buried before the snow starts flying. And yes, I realize I picked the perfect time of year to get this done. I am a little over 3 feet deep at the furnace connection but I still cant get the angle I need, to come straight up out of the ground and into the stove. I stripped 3 ft of the casing and foam off the end to get more flexibility. It did help some but its still like wrestling an alligator. Do I need to go deeper at the stove? If I use the ratchet strap method, is it possible to crack the casing or separate the foam from the casing if its bent too much?
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Deeper, 4ft is good but 6ft is better. Whatever jacket you stripped off, make sure that stays well above grade. The stuff is VERY resilient, I guarantee there isn't a ratchet strap in your possession that will wreck Insulpex. We had some 2 years ago get caught by a knife trencher underground (utility company) and pulled hard enough to tear it out of the concrete foundation wall 15 feet away while it was buried 2 ft down, literally bent 180 degrees, and it didn't crack the jacket. It is still in use today
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Just making bends on the roll PEX pipe is close to impossible. I only needed about 30 feet or so of UG PEX to do my install but I didn't have nearly that much on hand and didn't see the logic in ordering enough to justify the shipping, so I decided to roll my own. Not at all an easy task. I understand the black corrugated version is less dependable underground but for no more actually UG on my system I figured it worth a try.
I used the Sharkbite roll pipe and insulated with slip on pipe insulation that supposedly is good for 19R. Then wrapped with the Frost King insulated wrap for water pipes and sealed both ends of the pipe assy with expanding foam. Also drilled small holes just small enough to get the expanding foam nozzle into and let er rip. After everything set up I scraped off the excess foam on the holes and filled with RTV engine sealant( Which I accumulated from my last years at a GM dealership)
So far it has done well and for the amount of time above ground accumulated snow on top during operation. No ideal but workable.
A heat gun and using hot water helped make the pipe itself more bendable. But even that probably won't help all that much with your situation.
Wt
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You pretty much have to make the trench fit the pipe, not make the pipe fit the trench.
The diameter of the roll is usually pretty close to the maximum bend you will be able to get unless you have a couple people to help with it. Since it is usually about 8' in diameter when not forced tighter, you would need to be down about 3-4'. You probably will need to bury it once you get the angle above round right to keep it in place so you can bend it back straight up.