Testing PVC drain lines

How are you supposed to test PVC drain lines? I have a situation where I want to be sure that the elbow that connects a vertical 3" piece to the 3" that goes out to the street isn't leaking. I can see the elbow, is running water through it enough? How could I ever pressure test this considering it goes out to the street?

TIA,
Molo

The way I've seen it done... a "test tee" is in the line before it goes makes it to the sewer/septic tank. The test tee has a screwed in cap/plug which is removed and this inflatable rubber ball/plug is shoved up in the pipe and inflated to plug that end of the pipe. All branches are plugged one way or the other. At the other end the pipe sticks up about 3 feet and the whole pipe is filled with water which MUST stay at the same level..and you can visually check for leaks also. Then to check for blockage and slope a wooden ball was dropped in the high end then flushed out and retrieved at the test tee... this was referred to as "balling" the pipe.

pipe

Here, the pipe has to be 10' high, and I have never heard of "balling the pipe" in 55+ years in the trade.

Yeah... I worked thru a temp service for a few months to get some commercial experience... saw and heard a totally different lingo with every crew I worked with.... the 10' height makes more sense to me...gotta have enough head pressure to make a leak if there is a weak spot.

Hello again

I am only doing plumbing in a bathroom, not an entire house. I think it would be tough (and expensive) for me to set up to pressure test everything. Is it acceptable to simply pour large volumes of water down the sinks/showers to test the lines?

TIA,
Molo-

Well Bubba...one way to do it is to put it all together and use it ....then look for leaks.

Cut the pipe square, apply primer to the pipe end and to the fitting. Apply solvent to both the pipe and the fitting making sure you have 100% coverage. Push the pipe into the fitting turning a quarter turn (if possible) Hold the pipe and fitting for 1/2 minute. If you do all of that, you really don't need to test it. It will hold and not leak.

just flush it

pressure testing pVC pipes is a total pain
and is sometimes literally impossible to do
unles syou have thought ahead and installed
as access plug down stream of the system you want to test


Why are you worried about it anyway???

does it look bad , or look only half way into the socket???....

if you are really worried about it, just climb back up
into the hole and apply some extra glue to the joint
a couple of times, let it dry and do it again...

99% or most pvc plumbing will never, ever leak once put together
and glued....that is why pressure testing is such a total waste of time and
a complete joke......to simply make work and give the inspectors something to do..

if you read the printing on sch40 pvc pipe it claims to
be able to hold pressure of something like 250psi once it is
glued together.... so what are you worried about...

go ahead and flush it a couple of times and forget about it...

MP Mark. I agree with it being a waste of time...if you or I do the work. But, you've not seen some of the guys I worked with or some of the hacked up DIY homeowner jobs! I've seen guys miss spots use the wrong kind of glue and NO CLEANER/PRIMER and it all fell apart when I just jerked on the pipe a little. Lots of times I've seen pipe that was barely in the fittings... that's why it should be tested & inspected....not because of those of us who do it right...but...because of those who do it wrong. To me, plumbing is very easy and nothing but common sense..but I still learn alot reading forums and learn something on almost every job. When I go back and see some of the work I did many years ago I realize how much I've learned over the years!

In the Seattle area, you put in a test tee, and use the thread-in inflatable test ball. It's tested with at least a 10" head. On groundworks, that just means you have one pipe at least 10" high. After the test, you can cut it down.

It works real well for finding fittings that weren't glued the first time around.

pressure testing in colorado.....

the reason I found it to be a nightmare
was having to pressure test a system
in the dead of winter.......in Colorado......


that was NOT fun at all, and waiting for the a-hole
inspector to fianlly arrive was bordering sometime on
seeing the whole system freeze solid....

we usually had the thing ready to fill and waited
untill the fellow actually was nearby....in sight...


and of course he would not even get out of his car
and trudge through the snow to acutally LOOK at the system....

-----------------------------------------------------------------
on one job this one drunk dummey actually FORGOT
to take the test plugs out of the end of the clean out
tee in line.....under the slab.....

all he did was kick the no hub cast floor drains loose , to drain
down the stacks .....and then put them back together...

this was a commercial job and it was not caught till
the concrete was poured, tiled and finished....

when I saw water standing in the pipes,
I did not know how to tell the boss......LOL

they had fired the drunk dummey about two weeks earlier
and did not think to check out everything he had touched...



I can laugh about it now......