New water softener system awaiting installation, few questions.

**Tom Sawyer** · 11-25-2012, 08:59 AM

Plumbers would know better but there's a whole lot of DIY'ers and wannabe's that don't along with a few folks giving out bad advice on diy forums LOL

**Gary Slusser** · 11-25-2012, 09:47 AM

Plumbers would know better... you'd think they'd know that a hose clamp on a drain line would be OK too, but we see some don't. So I doubt they could keep PVC out of hot water either.

BTW, the water treatment we talk about here is not being installed on hot water, only cold water as it enters the house.

**Tom Sawyer** · 11-25-2012, 10:17 AM

Read the thread again. LOL

**ByteMe** · 11-25-2012, 10:24 AM

I vote for duct tape and bungee cords!

**ditttohead** · 11-25-2012, 12:51 PM

Be careful recommending Duct tape, someone has already told another poster to do that, he may claim you are only recommending it because of his vast knowledge and expertise in the use of duct tape and that you stole his idea.

**ditttohead** · 11-25-2012, 01:01 PM

McMaster 304 stainless strut clamp, vibration dampeing part #3262544-T44, $5.72 each, this will last much longer than you or I will, Zinc Chromate plated will last a couple hundred years, and they are $2.19 each. (and re: is it rated for outdoor use, lol, are you really going to ask that rookie of a question???).

BTW, yes, they are rated for outdoor use, "sad this question would come up by someone who claims to know everything, not sure if this person has ever used unistrut" and yes an ugly piece of scrap wood stripped from a shipping pallet or just about anything jammed between the wall and the pipe may work, but considering the extremely low cost of doing the job in a way that looks nice, is proper, and the fact that the parts are readily available, why not do it right?

**marcelo73** · 11-25-2012, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by ditttohead

McMaster 304 stainless strut clamp, vibration dampeing part #3262544-T44, $5.72 each, this will last much longer than you or I will, Zinc Chromate plated will last a couple hundred years, and they are $2.19 each. (and re: is it rated for outdoor use, lol, are you really going to ask that rookie of a question???).

BTW, yes, they are rated for outdoor use, "sad this question would come up by someone who claims to know everything, not sure if this person has ever used unistrut" and yes an ugly piece of scrap wood stripped from a shipping pallet or just about anything jammed between the wall and the pipe may work, but considering the extremely low cost of doing the job in a way that looks nice, is proper, and the fact that the parts are readily available, why not do it right?

Thank you sir!!!

**Mikey** · 11-26-2012, 05:41 AM

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

The problem is that PVC is not rated for temperatures above 185 degrees...

Whereas CPVC is rated for ...er... 200°. And most residential hot water comes out of the water heater at 125° or so. Whoop-de-doo. The difference is more important at my house, since the hot water starts out at 160°+ on a sunny day.

**Gary Slusser** · 11-26-2012, 05:54 AM

Originally Posted by ditttohead

McMaster 304 stainless strut clamp, vibration dampeing part #3262544-T44, $5.72 each, this will last much longer than you or I will, Zinc Chromate plated will last a couple hundred years, and they are $2.19 each. (and re: is it rated for outdoor use, lol, are you really going to ask that rookie of a question???).

BTW, yes, they are rated for outdoor use, "sad this question would come up by someone who claims to know everything, not sure if this person has ever used unistrut" and yes an ugly piece of scrap wood stripped from a shipping pallet or just about anything jammed between the wall and the pipe may work, but considering the extremely low cost of doing the job in a way that looks nice, is proper, and the fact that the parts are readily available, why not do it right?

Man you are so easy. LOL You can't really think I don't know about Uni-Strut. And you'd use ugly zinc rather than powder coated. That's all hard for me to believe but you are young with a huge ego and money driven and from California.

BTW, why do you want him to run the copper back against the stucco wall when that's the same as laying it on concrete? And, do you want him to use the strut running along the wall or out from the wall? Do you want him to anchor the strut and if so how?

**Gary Slusser** · 11-26-2012, 06:40 AM

Originally Posted by Mikey

Whereas CPVC is rated for ...er... 200°. And most residential hot water comes out of the water heater at 125° or so. Whoop-de-doo. The difference is more important at my house, since the hot water starts out at 160°+ on a sunny day.

You should have Tom check on his claim of PVC being rated at 185f. We are talking about sch 40 PVC here.

**Mikey** · 11-26-2012, 06:52 AM

I guess I'd run it along the wall to avoid it being stepped on, and somehow it seems more appropriate on the wall than on the ground. Hang it above lawnmower height. I'm not a big fan of powder coating for something like this, but if you use the zinc plated stock, prime it and paint it after cutting to match the wall, it won't look too bad. Guaranteed the first time the house is repainted, the strut, hangers, pipe, and a good bit of the landscape will be repainted as well, so stainless would probably be a waste of money. Local inspectors here get the warm fuzzies if they see Tapcon® fasteners, so that's what I'd use to fasten the strut to the wall, but there are lots of alternatives.

**ditttohead** · 11-26-2012, 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by Gary Slusser

Man you are so easy. LOL You can't really think I don't know about Uni-Strut. And you'd use ugly zinc rather than powder coated. That's all hard for me to believe but you are young with a huge ego and money driven and from California.

BTW, why do you want him to run the copper back against the stucco wall when that's the same as laying it on concrete? And, do you want him to use the strut running along the wall or out from the wall? Do you want him to anchor the strut and if so how?

How is suggesting using unistrut suggesting mounting it dirctly to stucco? Sometimes (more often than not) you make no sense. Then again, when your main purpose for posting is to find a reason to disagree with any of the advice givers, rather than offer productive advice to the OP. As to powder coated vs. zinc, ... I thought I recomended Stainless. I only posted the cost of the Zinc chromate since it will last hundreds of years, and cost half as much, and considering the price difference is insignificatnt, unless you are on such a tight budget that you can only afford to use a hammer to beat pieces out of an old pallet to make your mounts. lol

**Mikey** · 11-26-2012, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by Gary Slusser

You should have Tom check on his claim of PVC being rated at 185f. We are talking about sch 40 PVC here.

I wondered about that, but it made my whoop-de-doo sound better to accept that figure. Sch 40 is generally accepted to handle 140°F OK, but has to be pressure-derated as the temperature rises above its base rating temperature of 73°F. At 73°F, 1" Sch40 PVC has a maximum working pressure of 450psi; at 140°F that drops to 99psi. For 1" CPVC, it's 400/200. (Full disclosure: I didn't have all this in my head.)

**Gary Slusser** · 11-26-2012, 07:28 AM

Whatever pipe/tubing is used, he said he's using copper tubing, it is not laid on the ground, he has said it is going to be on concrete along the side/back of the stuccoed house. He's worried about nothing IMO because the copper is not going to be buried in concrete.

And cutting the strut means the ends rust unless they are protected. If he has to cut and paint strut pieces, it would be easier to paint a couple pieces of any kind of wood.

**Gary Slusser** · 11-26-2012, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by ditttohead

How is suggesting using unistrut suggesting mounting it dirctly to stucco? Sometimes (more often than not) you make no sense. Then again, when your main purpose for posting is to find a reason to disagree with any of the advice givers, rather than offer productive advice to the OP. As to powder coated vs. zinc, ... I thought I recomended Stainless. I only posted the cost of the Zinc chromate since it will last hundreds of years, and cost half as much, and considering the price difference is insignificatnt, unless you are on such a tight budget that you can only afford to use a hammer to beat pieces out of an old pallet to make your mounts. lol

You assumed in the post I repiled to with the above quote that I said to jam a piece of wood between the wall and the copper... he said he was afraid of laying the copper ON CONCRETE, then questioned having it against the stucco.

And now Mikey suggests hanging it on the stucco wall and I say it's a bad idea for a DIYer unless he's prepared to probably ruin some of the stucco until he gets it right.

ummmm, YOUR "right way" is not the only way of doing things. And many people don't have the money that you seem to have and think they should have for things like stainless strut that I don't recall you suggesting but had you, you can be sure I'd be mentioning it as overkill... and Falcon flexible SS lines, large backwashed carbon filters for hundreds of dollars and/or 10% cross linked resin on chlorinated city water so they can get an extra few years out of the more expensive, or less expensive 8%, resin, etc. etc..

BTW, I've been around awhile and I haven't seen any of your hundreds of years old galvanized anything in most of this country; maybe you're relating to the desert and if so you should say so.