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Old 01-30-2010, 07:01 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
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I couldn't find anything bigger than the fairly standard 4" PVC at the big chain stores like Lowes or Home Depot here. If I'm remembering correctly the pipe itself was around $30 for a 10ft. piece give or take a dollar or two.
Darn, that's even more expensive than what I found. 10 feet of the 6 inch P.V.C. tubing would be about $18, and the end caps are just about the same as what you found. For me the price of the end caps are the deal breaker. If I could only find end caps that will work and not break the bank.
Quote:
The pipes are made to fit into each other so one end has about a 6 inch section on it where the pipe flares out big enough for the end of another pipe to slip into it.
Ya, the 4 inch tubing does the same thing, but it is easy to cut off the flared end to fit the end cap.

6 inch tubing
tubing $18
end caps $12x2= $24
Total= $42

4 inch tubing
tubing $8
end caps $2x2= $4
Total= $12

That's just too much of a difference in price for only 2 extra inches in diameter for me. The peas in the system that is using the 4 inch tubing have not had any root maintenance problems as of yet. Although the temperatures have been on the cold side until lately. Now that the root system and the plants themselves are starting to warm up they are starting to grow much better. I did expect a solid tube of roots before they are done, but I made a mistake in design when building. I knew the roots would completely fill the tube but I glued both ends of the tube with P.V.C. glue. I wont be able to get them off to clean out the roots after the plants are done. I should have glued one end with silicone instead. That way I would be able to get it off so I would be able to slide the roots out. Now I will need to cut one end off to do that, and get another end cap to seal it again.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-31-2010 at 02:26 AM.
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