flex and seal plumbing repair

valhalla360 wrote:

ajriding wrote:
No, but I have used cheapo Homedepot fiberglass "resin" and some loose fibers. Just soak the fiberglass sheet or fibers in the epoxy and smear/wrap/slather on the cleaned and sanded crack. Marine epoxy would be better if you think the pipe might move or wiggle as Marine is more flexible.

Did this years ago on a cracked gray water pipe. Had some marine epoxy from boat work:
- Cleaned the pipe.
- Scuffed the area with sandpaper.
- Wrapped with fiberglass all the way around the pipe and then wetted out with epoxy.

7yrs later when we sold the trailer it was still holding. Another 6yrs on, I know the current owner and have seen the trailer this past summer...the repair is still holding.

PS: I probably wouldn't bother with marine epoxy if I was buying material. It's very expensive. Cheaper vinyl ester resin should work just fine.

It is amusing to see how creative one can get for no real good reason :h

The question is why?

Why bother cobbling materials and chemicals that are not 100% compatible?

ABS pipe is very easily repaired using the correct solvent based glue and with it your repair will never fail. It is easily found everywhere and especially where ever you buy ABS/PVC/CPVC pipe.



For less than $10 you can buy a can of proper solvent which permanently fixes the issue and that can is enough to completely plumb an entire house several times over.

Home Depot, Lowes and pretty much any hardware store will have it.

Unless you are say in the middle of the ocean and need an emergency temporary fix to get you back to land, there is no excuse to use other means. I am sure there will be some store within one or two hrs from your campsite that has the proper glue.. It shouldn't be this much of a hardship to break camp for a couple of hrs while you get the correct materials.

ABS is extremely easy to fix, you can even use ABS pipe or fittings to create a outside patch.

You can take a coupler/splice, cut in half length wise (create a half moon), paint the cracked area and the inside of the half moon of the coupler you cut up. Then apply the half moon coupler piece directly over top of the cracked area. Hold in place for several minutes for solvent to melt patch to pipe.

DONE.

If affected area is larger than the length of a coupler, you can slice a piece of ABS pipe long enough to cover entire length needed in half. Then with a heat gun gently warm the cut piece just high enough to soften slightly enough to allow you to spread it open to fit over the broken pipe. Once patch fits, you paint the pipe and patch with correct solvent and slap it on. You can always go back over the edges of the patch with the solvent glue to ensure the edges have sealed.

Your pipe is now patched, that patch will not leak, break or give trouble in the future.

Can't do this with water tanks, as they are not ABS or PVC the plastic used for tanks require non solvent methods of repair.