Plumbing / Pipe repair question

[Touring5]

I'm trying to help a friend with a plumbing problem, but it involves pipe that I've never worked with before. Here's the scenario:

The plastic pipe that goes from his well pump to the pressure tank was repaired sometime in the past and has begun to leak. It appears that the previous repair involved cutting the black pipe and inserting a splice consisting of galvanized pipe, reducers, fittings and hose clamps. The reducers must have been iron because one rusted and is the source of the leak.

It seems that the proper repair would be to cut out the previous stuff and replace it with the same type of black pipe, using barbed fittings and stainless steel clamps.

I don't know what the correct description of that pipe is? It is black and appears to be polyethylene (it isn't PVC or ABS) and around 1.25" O.D.. Is there a standard pipe for this application and how would it be sized - by O.D. or I.D. (and what is the typical dimension)? He believes he needs pipe specified by I.D. (.75" he believes).

In my research it seems that the use of plastic fittings is preferred since that would not corrode, along with S.S. hose clamps (for obvious reasons).

I've worked with copper, PVC, and even some threaded pipe, but no experience with this type material.

Any info or recommendations on repair would be helpful.

 

[The_Jeff]

Probably 1" ID, and that's probably what they call it, "One inch poly". The gray barbs are what you're supposed to splice with. Heat the poly up-- dip it in boiling water if you can, and it will slide over the barbs more easily.

 

[Touring5]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I figured slipping the fittings on wouldn't be easy. The leak is in the point farthest from the entrance to his crawl, so we'll want to minimize the number of trips thorugh the water we old farts have to make. Perhpas a heat gun on low would soften things up nicely (on GFCI circuit of course)? Or careful use of a torch to reduce the shock hazard?

He found some fitting from when he believes the original repair was made and thinks it's 3/4" I.D. - is it likely he's mistaken? (I haven't been back over there for a couple of days).

[we managed to reduce the leak (temporarily) with some plumbers epoxy putty over the rusty reducer]

 

[The_Jeff]

Heat gun sounds great! I would not use the torch as it would probably distort the poly to a point of it no longer sealing. There's probably a special tool to jam the things on there. Or use a sledge/dead blow hammer.

Barb fittings are under $1 at HD and lowes so get some 3/4 and some 1 inchers just to stay out of trouble. (Though I'd try to get everything back to 1 inch if there's no good reason not to.)

 

[84zmyfavorite]

Dont forget hose clamps around the poly where the barbed fitting is inside. I Used two hose clamps on this scenario the other day but with 1 1/4 poly. Put one hose clamp facing one way, and the other facing the other way.

 

[doitmyself]

There are different grades of that poly pipe. Get the higher pressure rated one. Also, get "better" hose clamps. Look in your yellow pages for a well supply company.