Below the water line pipe (schedule 40?)

Dooverdixon

So I'm redoing the below the water line pipe because one of the pipes rusted out and sprung a leak.  I've got all new fittings coming (cast iron steam fittings).  

Will I be ok using schedule 40 black pipe to pipe this in?  I can get schedule 80 but it's a 2 hour drive and way more expensive.

Thanks for the continued help!

STEVEusaPA

You can, and probably should, use copper below the water line.

Dooverdixon

Copper??????   That's new ...for steam?

EBEBRATT-Ed

#40 is ok. I would use #80 on commercial. I have never seen #80 on a residential job

Jamie Hall

Dooverdixon said:

Copper??????   That's new ...for steam?

Copper below the water line is fine. No problem. In iron, Sched 40

KC_Jones

When I replaced mine I went with copper below the water line. Huge difference in the amount of sludge I have. My wet return essentially looks like drinking water. The only crud I see in the system is in the boiler, and with water treatment, that's minimal.

Dooverdixon

welll shucks.  i  mean cutting and sweating copper is WAAAY easier than blackpipe and i do have a boat load of sludge in my mud leg.  I am Redoing the whole thing, should i do it in copper??? 

If so, Is it special copper?  i see there is cast DWV copper (much pricier).  or just regular old copper fittings?

How do you union the blackpipe to copper?

should i redo the whole lower section including the section returning water to the boiler?

do they make 2" sharkbite fittings....lol this is a joke

KC_Jones

It's up to you how you move forward with this, it's your dime. Regular copper fittings are fine.
I joined the copper to black pipe with a threaded copper adapter and a black union. Could have done a sweat union to thread, but that was more money if I remember correctly.

ethicalpaul

I think I've read that brass is a good intermediary between copper and iron. But if KC isn't seeing weird corrosion on his I'm sure it's fine

Jamie Hall

For what it's worth, part of Cedric's wet return system is copper, put in just as @KC_Jones said about 15 years ago -- no problems so far, anyway.

KC_Jones

ethicalpaul said:

I think I've read that brass is a good intermediary between copper and iron. But if KC isn't seeing weird corrosion on his I'm sure it's fine

I wouldn't argue with using brass, there is sound science there. I just didn't do it, in part, because I didn't think about it at the time.