In Israel, fiberglass pipes are fighting for survival. They are more expensive than poli ethylene pipes. They have a market niche for special applications like chemicals. The pic is publicity for the American Army.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
In the US PVC is the most popular pipe material, not PE or fiberglass. I assume that for applications where chemical resistance is not important (e.g. carrying water) cost is the deciding factor. I don't know why the economics of PE vs. PVC would be different in the US vs. other places but apparently they are.
I suspect that a lot of building contractors may use PVC out of habit. I know this sounds circular, but PVC is probably the market leader because it is the market leader.
Also, here in AZ we just came out of a housing bubble in which a lot of substandard construction occurred, so during the 1990's long term durability may not have been the deciding factor in the choice of materials.
A couple of years back I was watching This Old House when it was on location in Tucson, AZ. Tucson had just begun using water from the Central Arizona Project and the greater acidity of the CAP water was scouring the rust off the inside of the Tucson's water mains, causing water across the city to be a light brown color. On the episode of TOH that I was watching the hosts stopped at a worksite run by the Tucson Water Department where a new pipe with a plastic liner of some sort was being buried in order to prevent the new pipes from releasing rust.
In Israel, fiberglass pipes are fighting for survival. They are more expensive than poli ethylene pipes. They have a market niche for special applications like chemicals. The pic is publicity for the American Army.
4 comments:
In the US PVC is the most popular pipe material, not PE or fiberglass. I assume that for applications where chemical resistance is not important (e.g. carrying water) cost is the deciding factor. I don't know why the economics of PE vs. PVC would be different in the US vs. other places but apparently they are.
K
PE is much superior. I wonder why is so popular in Israel but not in Europe or the US.
I suspect that a lot of building contractors may use PVC out of habit. I know this sounds circular, but PVC is probably the market leader because it is the market leader.
Also, here in AZ we just came out of a housing bubble in which a lot of substandard construction occurred, so during the 1990's long term durability may not have been the deciding factor in the choice of materials.
A couple of years back I was watching This Old House when it was on location in Tucson, AZ. Tucson had just begun using water from the Central Arizona Project and the greater acidity of the CAP water was scouring the rust off the inside of the Tucson's water mains, causing water across the city to be a light brown color. On the episode of TOH that I was watching the hosts stopped at a worksite run by the Tucson Water Department where a new pipe with a plastic liner of some sort was being buried in order to prevent the new pipes from releasing rust.
Where I come from (Sweden) PE is the most common material for pressurized water networks. PVC is mainly used for storm water.
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