Club 80-90 Forums

Very reassuring Brickwerks.

Wish we had a Brickwerks up here in the frozen North. Your web stuff is invaluable.

silverbullet wrote:Stainless is inert, that's why it doesn't corrode (the clue's in the name)

The clue being Stain(s)less, is does bloody corrode it just lasts much better than anything else. I recently had to try and explain this to a guy whos stainless steel handrails in his pool had rusticules hanging off them after only three months. That was a fun conversation!

I posted on this recently but have looked into an alternative and cheaper version than stainless and I can't yet see why not but would be pleased to hear from anyone who has other ideas. hoseworld.com sells 32mm silicone rad pipe in straight sections for around £14/metre and flexible pipe with ss wire embedded for a bit more, with a few alloy hose connectors at around a fiver each I worked out it would cost around £100 to fit a system similar to the stainless one but using all silicone with joints as necessary. Not sure if this would also insulate the pipe more than stainless and put temps up??

cheers

Tim

ajp wrote:

silverbullet wrote:Stainless is inert, that's why it doesn't corrode (the clue's in the name)

The clue being Stain(s)less, is does bloody corrode it just lasts much better than anything else. I recently had to try and explain this to a guy whos stainless steel handrails in his pool had rusticules hanging off them after only three months. That was a fun conversation!

there are different stainless alloys, some do corrode, some dont, its essential to get the correct stainless for the aplication, of course the more stain less it is the more expensive to produce

ianboydsnr wrote:

ajp wrote:

silverbullet wrote:Stainless is inert, that's why it doesn't corrode (the clue's in the name)

The clue being Stain(s)less, is does bloody corrode it just lasts much better than anything else. I recently had to try and explain this to a guy whos stainless steel handrails in his pool had rusticules hanging off them after only three months. That was a fun conversation!

there are different stainless alloys, some do corrode, some dont, its essential to get the correct stainless for the aplication, of course the more stain less it is the more expensive to produce

Thankyou! For instance, Tube benders prefer to use 304 as it's easier to work (for exhausts etc. so cheaper for the end user) but it's not as corrosion resistant as 316, but that is much harder work. There are also magnetic stainless steels just to confuse things further.
The poolside environment is one of the most chemically aggressive for metals and you're breathing that vapour in when you go swimming If pool handrails go rusty, it's because they were made from cheap materials...
for coolant pipes, there's no need to go mad and 304 tubes should be just fine. They last well enough for a red-hot exhaust, so should be ok for a pipe full of warm, corrosion-inhibited water.

Everything we use in pools is marine grade stainless (it has to to be salt water pools are having a big revival). My original point still stands everything will corrode given the right conditions and enough time even medical grade stainless is still only stain(s)less. Corrosion is inevitable like the tides.