(En español)

LASCO Fittings Inc. has included the following article by David A. Chasis, Plastic Piping Systems, which was published in the Industrial Press. In this article performance of PVC at low temperatures is discussed.

To the best of our knowledge, and my 20+ years of experience, the PVC pipe and fittings can serve satisfactorily at low temperatures.

Although, the published information is limited on cold temperature performance. It is accepted that the PVC does become more brittle, as do most materials, at low temperatures. This increase in brittleness could be detrimental in impact, or surge situations. The effects of tensile strengths can possibly be interpolated from elevated temperature data.

Most Plastic piping systems work quite well in temperatures below 0° F (-18° C). In fact, tensile strength increases in thermoplastic piping as temperature decreases. However, the impact resistance of most thermoplastics decreases with a decrease in temperature and brittleness appears in these piping materials. As long as piping material is undisturbed and not jeopardized by blows or bumping of objects and the piping is not dropped from truck beds (the pipe could actually shatter or splinter if the temperature was at freezing or below), there will be no deleterious effects to the plastic pipe.

Plastic Piping Systems by David A Chasis, Industrial Press