assistance needed with cutting of pool pipe

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nabril15

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May 22, 2011
634
Miami, FL
Pool Size
16400
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool RJ-45
I moved the filter and some pipes around my pool equipment in preparation for a storage shed/cover. I have an inline chlorinator as you can see in the attached picture. When I installed it, I mistakenly chose to attach it so close to that valve; it must have been my only option available a year ago. That valve on the left had an inch or so of pvc that I was able to glue to the connector.
I would like to move that chlorinator to another place in the piping, but, as you can see, I have no room at all to cut and reglue. The connector is female-threaded and it is screwed into the chlorinator. The chlorinator is tall and close to the ground, so I dont have the option to unscrew it.

Can anyone suggest a way to remove this chlorinator? I was thinking about cutting the connector VERY CAREFULLY with a small rotating saw so that I don't cut into the 1/2 inch of pipe that is is glued to on the left side of the picture. I could then perhaps chisel away the remaining bits of the connector so as to leave the pipe exposed.
Of course, I could cut through the chlorinator and get another one, but I would like to avoid that expense.

Thank you
 
Why not cut through the chlorinator and throw it away and not replace it? ... being that typically using them results in over stabilization issues.

Post another picture from further away.
 
Unfortunately I don't have good advice. I would just cut the feeder out of the plumbing all together.

P.S. I don't see any valves in that picture. I see a couple of Tees and a stray piece of pipe.

If you absolutely have to save it then I'd cut the threaded adaptor out right at the joint between it and the tee and then use a Rambit to clear the cuff of the tee. Then you can reuse the feeder.
 
jblizzle said:
Why not cut through the chlorinator and throw it away and not replace it? ... being that typically using them results in over stabilization issues.

Post another picture from further away.
Click to expand...

I hate the floating little frog or duck or whatever floating chlorine container. I will post a picture from farther away.
 
Bama Rambler said:
We hate those too. We however love manually or automatically dosing with liquid (aka bleach) or using a swg. :)
Click to expand...

so you don't mess with chlorine pucks and having to check for them? And buying huge buckets of pucks? You do it with liquid?
Hmm. It makes sense.
 
I would just cut the chlorinator out and start over.. If you want to reuse the T get yourself a fitting extender which glues over your fitting attach a fitting to the extender and off you go..
 
There are several YouTube videos that show you how to separate glued PVC joints using heat and a peeling method. I've successfully separated joints this way however it helps to have some practice on a few test pieces before you tackle a real part. You also need to be sure you have good ventilation because fumes from melting/charring PVC are not good for you.
 

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ok, i include a better picture. I would like to preserve the chlorinator even if I decide to not use it.

On the right side, I have it easier - I can cut where the yellow triangle is, and redo that side.
On the left side, you guys have given a few ideas, and I think I understood them:
1. Cut at the red triangle and then clean out the interior of that T somehow.
2. Is cutting at the blue triangle an option? No, right? THe flow of water goes from right to left, so if I cut there and insert a pipe in, it should be fine, no?[attachment=0:2mewzvkq]pipes.jpg[/attachment:2mewzvkq]
 
if you use a pipe extender fitting you can cut right at that joint between the Tee and the slipxmale. Cutting into the Tee doesn't leave much room for error. Using the pipe extender fitting will give you fresh pipe to glue onto again.
 
X-PertPool said:
if you use a pipe extender fitting you can cut right at that joint between the Tee and the slipxmale. Cutting into the Tee doesn't leave much room for error. Using the pipe extender fitting will give you fresh pipe to glue onto again.
Click to expand...

ok, so you are saying to cut at the red triangle as flush to the T as possible. But I will have to clean out the inside of the T so that the pipe extender fitting will grip, right? I assume that home depot will probably not have this fitting.
 
cut the pipe right off at the T and you are done (leave the PVC pipe nub inside the T). Pipe extender fittings glue to the INSIDE of PVC (not the inside of PVC fitting). The outside the the extender fitting is the size Outside diameter of PVC pipe. It's a little hard to explain until you see one. Think about it like this, if you had 10 pipe extender fittings you could glue them all together to each other and have the equivalent of a long length of standard pvc pipe. Since the pipe extender does glue to the inside of standard PVC it does reduce the inside dimension of the pipe a little bit but you won't notice a difference in head loss or PSI or anything since it's such a small run. Yes this is a special "pool fitting" you won't find in home depot. You can google PVC pipe extender and find multiple retailers though.
 
I had never heard of the pipe extender, and that's after selling PVC fittings for the last 20 years. It sounds like a good concept, and probably (maybe) will work, but the problem is that as a PVC pipe manufacturer I can say that pipe has a controlled outside diameter, not inside diameter, and there is no way to check "dry fit" of the pipe extender in this application without making the cut on the fitting first and taking the pool equipment out of commisson.

Pipe inside diameters can vary by several thousandths of an inch, which can make a difference between the fitting/pipe extender being a "go or no-go".

I've examined your picture, although it is a clean looking manifold, you are pretty much painted into a corner as far as moving the chlorinator. You've got a lot of ball valves there, and I don't see a way around with a re-plumb.

In my opinion you would be better off either leaving things status quo, or you can cut into that long run of pipe on the right side of the photo, and cutting the housing off of the existing chlorinator so that you can spin it off of the existing male adapter, and plumbing in a new chlorinator if you really still want one. Only this time use unions on each side of the new chlorinator.
 
Also I wanted to say that "glued PVC joints" is a misnomer. A properly applied pipe solvent and "glue" creates what is more accurately called a "solvent weld" joint. The "glue" if applied properly attacks the PVC pipe walls and fuses the two PVC surfaces together, it is not an adhesive. If you were to observe a properly solvent welded PVC joint you would see a solid mass of PVC between the fitting and pipe, not just a seam of cement in between fitting and pipe.

I would not recommend attempting to apply heat and such to the joint in trying to get it apart, nor if possible would I recommend attempting to "hone" the inside diameter of the tee.

If done improperly or unsuccessfully you may render that entire manifold useless, and end up replacing that whole bank of ball valves as well......
 
I know it's not technically a glue, you just get used to saying it after a while as a term of making stuff stick together. I did just think of 2 more alternatives for this problem though. You could use a rubber coupling (rubber boot) to re-attach the pipe after cutting, although it wouldn't look too pretty and you'll have to stretch the coupling over the fitting as it's designed to fit over the pipe section not the fitting sections. Another option would to simply install unions to the entire manifold to make it removable and therefore you would have the ability to spin out the chlorinator as clearance would no longer be an issue. It's not easy to see in the picture but if everything eventually runs together you could do this with 2 unions. Here is a link to a plumb job I did that I used unions to make the manifold easily serviceable and winterizable. I had to use a bunch of unions but his plumbing setup was already complicated. The unions allow everything to be removed completely leaving just stub ups.

https://plus.google.com/102527211383561562154/posts/3TUaLBDA5za
 
kevin
thanks for your advice. that picture of that job you did looks intense. Wow. Unions, valves, you name it!!
 
I dont want to be stubborn with this. I searched online for a pipe extender fitting, and I found a store online. I emailed them with the same picture above so as to get their opinion. After talking a bit, I asked if I even needed a chlorinator; several threads above, some of you experts recommended that I get rid of it. This gentleman (30 years in biz) recommended that I keep it, but that I switch to a Pentair 320. He stated that my chlorinator, a Hayward CL200 clone, reduces my flow of water from 1.5" to 7/8" through the check valve that is inside; this should be causing backpressure in my system. I don't now if this is true, but it makes sense.

The 320 is apparently designed so that you keep the same pressure throughout since the check valve is designed differently. I didn't get the salesman-pitch impression from him since he took his time on discussing the best way to cut my existing one out. I know that pool school makes no mention of chlorine pucks, but perhaps there is merit with keeping the chlorinator ???

I have no issues with my pool and I take care of it very haphazardly - liquid chlorine every week or 2, and refill of pucks every week and half to 2 weeks or so. I take the water to a nearby pool store, and whatever they tell me I do. I have a "it isn't broken type of situation" and a sparkling clean pool. I simply want to relocate the chlorinator for other purposes, and I need to ultimately decide it to re-install my current one or a new one.
As always, I appreciate the replies.
 
I have no issues with my pool and I take care of it very haphazardly - liquid chlorine every week or 2, and refill of pucks every week and half to 2 weeks or so. I take the water to a nearby pool store, and whatever they tell me I do. I have a "it isn't broken type of situation" and a sparkling clean pool.
Click to expand...
The total opposite of what we teach. If it's working for you, I see no reason to fix it.
 

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