PVC Line Ques.

Jennifer L. · #1 10/22/06, 10:00 AM

Does anyone know if you can tap a PVC line? I think that's the term. I'd like to set up a winter watering system for rabbits, and that needs a heat cable in a PVC or CPVC line. The drinking valves would come directly off this line. They sell threaded pipe saddles that you can use to connect the valves to the line, but it seems expensive if I could thread straight into the lines. Does anyone know if this can be done? The valves are threaded 1/8 inch.

Thanks.

Jennifer

Ole Man Legrand · #2 10/22/06, 10:16 AM

I got one at the hardware store for less than $5. I used it to hook up the ice maker on the refrigerator to the PVC line under the floor. Jay

ninny · #3 10/22/06, 10:17 AM

Check with your local nursery. They usually have all kinds of PVC fittings for drip watering and such...

Might have just what you need.

agmantoo · #4 10/22/06, 10:17 AM

I have drilled and threaded into schedule 80 pvc to mount a mist sprayer for my pigs. The wall on schedule 40 would not have much to support threads IMO.

harrisjnet · #5 10/22/06, 01:28 PM

They sell them. They are called saddels, taps or yokes. You will find small 1/4" ones where ice makers, water cooled air conditioners, or drip irrigation systems are sold. Most Hardware stores carry the smaller ones and will order the larger sized for you.

tiogacounty · #6 10/22/06, 04:34 PM

I can't imaging that trying to tap it would be worth the time. You could cut it and glue a tee in line for less than a buck, and never have to worry about it.

Jennifer L. · #7 10/22/06, 05:18 PM

Thanks, everyone. Well, I've got a 60 cage set up right now and may add some more before winter. Yes, I can pop $60 if I have to, but I was thinking it would be a place to save money if they could be threaded right into the line.

Agmantoo, thanks for the advice on the heavier line. I'll have to check into it further and see if it looks like something to do or not. I do hate to spend money if I don't have to!

Jennifer

mtman · #8 10/22/06, 07:05 PM

agmantoo is correct it has to be sched. 80 you can also thread it if you have an adjustable die and make 2 cuts

agmantoo · #9 10/22/06, 07:26 PM

I think she intends to drill and tap the PVC. Drinkers are to be installed. They will not freeze as quickly mounted in this manner since the drinkers will remain heated by the main supply line water. I have seen a system done similarly and the main line had a small fractional horsepower power pump circulating the water back through a small water heater set to a very low setting. Luke wawrm water was delivered to the animals without ever freezing.

tyusclan · #10 10/22/06, 07:48 PM

There are fittings available that you can tap and thread into schedule 40 PVC on a LOW pressure system. I used them when I had rabbits years ago. The pressure has to be regulated down, because at pump pressure they will blow out. I can't remember where I got them, because it's been years since I've had rabbits, but they are available.

rzrubek · #11 10/22/06, 09:37 PM

Yes you can tap schedule 40 pvc with no problems, if you tap through a fitting. I have a 20 cage setup and that is exactly what i did. What you do is cut the pvc right where you want a drink valve and glue in a coupler making the plastic twice as thick and then drill and tap for the drink valve. Coupler fittings here cost about 12 cents each. 60 coupler fittings and a 1/8" MPT tap would be far cheaper than 60 of those saddles. Plus you don't have to order the couplers like you would the saddles. I've had my sysem in for over a year and I have had no problems with it. Good luck, Randy

Edited to add: Oh yeah, I forgot i use a breaker tank to reduce the pressure. If you noticed the price they want for a breaker tank you'll see why i made my own. Find a one to five gallon container with lid, a swamp cooler float valve (if you can't find one of those, you can use a float valve for a toilet). Plumb up the valve of your choice, be sure to drill a 1/4" hole in the lid to allow air in (ask me why i know this is important!!). A bulkhead fitting for your pvc line can be made by putting a male threaded coupler on your pvc line, drill a hole in the bucket about an inch off the bottom just big enough for the treads to slide through, install it and find a rubber washer that just fits over the treads put it on and screw on a female fitting. Thats how I did mine and again, no problems. I also put valves at the end of my runs to drain the system with, but mine is not a recirculating or heated system. I think mine would work just fine with heat cable in it.

tyusclan · #12 10/23/06, 04:56 AM

I just used an old toilet tank for my breaker tank. I mounted it on the wall, plumbed in to the toilet valve like normal, and then got the gasket and fittings to reduce the larger hole down to the pipe size I needed for the outlet. Worked like a top.

ponyboy123 · #13 10/23/06, 11:43 AM

I have 10,036 threaded drink nipples on my mink ranch here. Just use thick walled poly(green stripe rated for 100 psi) and get the morso bite nipple. These are designed for the mink industry but not problem to use them for other animalls as well. We have heating lines intalled inside out lines for year round use with very little problems with freeze ups, and I am located in Nova Scotia , Canada. You just drill a 8 mm hole and the nipples have a tappered thread on them. Don't turn in all the way so if down the road on begins to leak, u can just turn it in an additional turn. Any questions just drop me a line.

Pony

Jennifer L. · #14 10/24/06, 05:50 PM

Hey, nice input, everyone! I'll be able to get a system up and running with this information.

Ponyboy123, I Googled around for information and ended up at a farm store somewhere around Digby, NS. They had a LOT of mink farm materials, which made it sound like there are a lot of mink in area. Are you near there? I never knew that mink ranches would be clustered like that, but no reason why not, I guess. Around here they are usually a ways apart because they use downer cows for feed a lot of the time. Do you use a dry dog food type feed for yours? I've always been kind of interested in mink, although they are snotty things.

Jennifer

ponyboy123 · #15 10/27/06, 10:34 AM

Small world huh Jen, I am bout a hundred miles from Sissiboo Home Hardware in Digby. Owned by a friend of mine Randy Sabine. There is a large number of mink ranches located down on the "French Shore" of Nova Scotia. I am located in Northern Nova Scotia and we have the only mink ranch in our county. Mostly we feed fish in our diet, but it does contain beef, pig, and poultry byproducts. It is considered wet feed as apposed to the dry feed you are refering to. I love being a mink rancher, as with all farming it is very labour intensive, but I find it very rewarding. There is a real science involved in raising the "perfect" pelt.

Jennifer L. · #16 10/30/06, 08:45 AM

Thanks, Ponyboy. Yes, it is a small world. I know someone who lives near Digby, used to be commercial fisherman but retired now.

I bought mink cages for rabbits and ended up talking to the guy for quite awhile just about mink. He got out of the business because unreliable feed source. It was coming out of WI and he is on the western edge of the Adirondacks so they would either run out before they got there half the time or else have some other problem. He sure liked his mink, though.

His was small operation next to yours--something like 700 cages and maybe half of those were breeders.

People who do these more off beat types of things tend to be interesting to talk to.

Jennifer