Monthly Archives: August 2016

Clear PVC pipe is an interesting material. It has all the practical properties of regular schedule 40 PVC pipe. It is tough, can handle high pressures, has a long lifespan, and is inexpensive. Well, compared to copper or stainless steel pipe it is inexpensive. For a 5-foot length, clear PVC is roughly four times the price of schedule 40 PVC of the same diameter. This is because clear PVC is much more difficult to produce than white or gray PVC. If clear PVC pipe and tubing is so much more expensive, why would anyone buy it?

The clue is in the name; clear PVC allows you to watch as fluid flows through a pipeline. Visual monitoring is helpful in many circumstances. In food production and processing, it can be vital to see the product or a component of a final product as it is transported through the manufacturing process. This is true of many other processes, some of which I will explain below!
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The above is a question very commonly asked. While it may seem like a simple question, how to define the strength of PVC pipe is far from straightforward. The term "strength" can mean a number of things, all of which cannot be covered in one blog post. The three types of strength measurements I will go into in this post are collapse pressure, burst pressure, and tensile strength. These are three of the most common ways to measure the strength of any type of pipe, so I will outline how different types and sizes of PVC compare in terms of those measurements. Included is a helpful PVC pipe strength chart for each, so you will know exactly how strong your PVC is.

Tensile Strength

Tensile strength is, to be put into simple terms, the maximum amount of weight that can be placed on something before it breaks or loses its original shape. PVC pipe tensile strength can be measured by hanging weight from the pipe until it bends or cracks.

As you can see from the chart to the right, tensile strength of PVC pipe increases as the size of the pipe increases. 8" PVC pipe of either schedule is extremely strong for how inexpensive it is. The smaller sizes are exponentially weaker, but can still hold a great deal of weight if they must.

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