How I Fixed Leaking PVC with A Shop Vac!

[john.m.cole3]

I'm am amazed that I just fixed some leaking PVC with a shop vac!!! I had a leak where the union meets the return. This tank had 4 leaks in the plumbing and 3 were solved by simply adding more pipe thread sealant. This last one was on a slip fitting, what the heck! I took the part off, capped on end, and put a shop vac on the other end. With it running, I added primer and cement to the leaky area. The vacuum created pulled the primer and glue exactly into the areas needed and there is no more leak!!! Check out the vid where I got the idea from...

 

[KJAG]

Nice. Thought this was gonna be another band aid fix but that's actually pretty rad. Think a coupler and a hacksaw would've been more or less work?

 

[Sleepydoc]

I've heard of this before - it's a neat trick that can save a lot of work re-doing your entire plumbing job. Thankfully I haven't had to use it yet, but it's good to know.

One warning with with vacuums and solvent cement: solvent cement is very flammable, and vacuum cleaner motors can serve as a source of ignition, so make sure you don't have any significant amount of fumes going in the vacuum cleaner

 

[john.m.cole3]

Nice. Thought this was gonna be another band aid fix but that's actually pretty rad. Think a coupler and a hacksaw would've been more or less work?

i had a threaded to slip adapter glued (or so I thought) right up to a union. Yeah I could've bought a new union and new adapter, but this technique sounded neat, and most important is that it worked! I just wanted o share with everyone