If Pipe Glue Welds Pipe to the Fitting, How Can You Unglue It?

For over 70 years PVC pipe and fittings have been cement bonded to each other.

For all of that 70 years we have all been told that the solvent actually welds them such that the interface no longer exists and the joint can never be separated.

If that is the case, why do joints pull apart?  Is every failed joint because of poor gluing?

The answer is that the joint is not welded and the interface is easily found.

When the pipe is extruded or the fitting is molded, the density of the PVC right at the surface is greater than in the center of the part.  Also, the fitting sockets are tapered in order to slide the fitting out of the mold tool.

These surfaces are far denser than the glue material and when the pipe or fitting is heated enough to bend it, the adhesive joint will always separate without any change to the molded surface of the fitting or extruded surface of the pipe OD.

Unglued fittings have only half of the original thin layer of glue on the socket surface and this layer is softened quickly with new primer and glue.  Unglued fittings need no prep to reglue.

Pipe glue does not weld the surfaces together. Our customers prove it again and again, every day.

Help spread the word: pipe CAN be unglued!