I remember seeing their booth at the Orlando Maker Faire years ago. Metal pipe was a bit too expensive for my budget but I was still inspired by their display and started using PVC and custom 3D printed connectors in my gardening projects.
I love how much work they've done on connectors. In my experience with PVC, one of the biggest hurdles to making interesting projects is finding prebuilt connectors for anything besides simple 90-degree angles. It makes sense given that most PVC projects are for construction rather than hobby projects, but it's still annoying.
Having pre-drilled screw holes is also a nice bonus.
PVC plumbing fittings come in 22.5 degree variations between 0 and 180, just as an aside. It's what I use for most gardening projects. It lasts longer than thin wall conduit would, and is much less expensive than the thick wall steel pipe.
There are lots of options online but I've noticed that our local Home Depot is missing a surprising amount of common connectors and our Lowe's barely carries any.
Actual plumbers (and electricians, fitters, tinners, etc) buy stuff from supply houses, that’s why the selection is garbage. Some supply houses will sell to people off the street, some will not.
This is because the customers at Home Depot and Lowe's are primarily muggles. The wizards will pop in if they need something and it's convenient, but by and large they buy at wizard stores that stock the full range of fittings.
Said wizard stores sometimes have a handwritten sign taped up on the wall behind the counter dating back to the Carter administration that reads "Those in the trade will be served first"[0].
Your reward for being a wizard is having competent help at the store, and the fittings haven't been randomly distributed among the bins by a million prior muggles.
Electrician wizards similarly work with electrical supply stores, not Home Depot if they can avoid it. Carpenter wizards cross over a little more, but they generally prefer to work with lumber yards that deliver[1] and have halfway decent lumber[2].
[0] Yes, literally.
[1] I believe the box stores do to, but they charge handsomely because they don't really want to.
[2] 2x3's are crap everywhere, but the quality on anything bigger goes up immensely at a real lumberyard.
> [2] 2x3's are crap everywhere, but the quality on anything bigger goes up immensely at a real lumberyard.
This was once the case, but I've not found it to be true in recent history (in NorCal anyway). Lumberyards are getting 2x4/6/8 stock in roughly the same quality as the big box stores, and the only difference appears to be service and turnover rate.
Covid's effects on the lumber supply chain are lasting - many sawyers and mills have closed, and what's left is produced to meet a price point.
Because they are trying to make a profit and so have gotten rid of things that don't see much.
While sometimes I would make the argument that the lack of inventory is why people go online instead, in this case I think that is wrong. Their target market is home owners doing plumbing, and plumbing rarely needs those odd connectors. Frankly if you have small PVC/cPVC water pipes (as opposed to larger drain pipes) I would replace them with PEX where practical, and cut them off where not and install a PEX adapter. (I'd also do that for copper or iron pipes - copper because it might have lead solder but if it doesn't you are good for a while; iron because it hasn't been common in so long that anything you see is probably past expected lifespan)
PVC is considered as the most environmentally damaging plastic and one of the most toxic substances for inhabitants of our planet. From cradle to grave, the PVC lifecycle (production, use, and disposal) results in the release of toxic, chlorine-based chemicals, and it is one of the world's largest dioxin sources.
Curious what you consider 'lasts longer' as all of my garden support frames and nets are held up by conduit for about 10 years and I'm not seeing any signs of significant rust..
Galvanized EMT conduit will rust, especially if you let water get inside and it does not drain. I use silver spray paint on all cut or drilled spots, and drill tiny holes on the underside of any horizontal runs that descend from verticals. (E.g. I've bent EMT into four-sided frames for doors, etc). I have outdoor EMT structures (trellises, garden gates, chicken run frames, geodesic domes) that are 25 years old and going strong. :)
Agreed though -- PVC pipe (the white stuff) does very poorly with exposure to UV light. The beige CPVC stuff is worse. The black PVC (ABS?) is supposed to be better, but less available in small gauges. And the grey plastic stuff used for electrical conduit is also supposedly UV-safe, but is far less structurally rigid than any of the others, or of course galvanized EMT. Sometimes that flexibility is a virtue, but usually not.
> PVC pipe (the white stuff) does very poorly with exposure to UV light
To my understanding, this is primarily an aesthetic issue. PVC pipes have been tested over years of UV exposure and remain structurally sound. This is a topic that comes up periodically on the pool forums since it is pretty common to have some amount of exposed PVC pipes above ground.
I love how much work they've done on connectors. In my experience with PVC, one of the biggest hurdles to making interesting projects is finding prebuilt connectors for anything besides simple 90-degree angles. It makes sense given that most PVC projects are for construction rather than hobby projects, but it's still annoying.
Having pre-drilled screw holes is also a nice bonus.