Plumbing for Dummies: who's the Dummie?

[ToughButterCup]

By sheer chance, a bit of promotional material landed in my In Box and by greater chance, I read it.  Here's the online version

The Enhancements make the difference, runs the tag line. 

 

From the pdf version:

Quote

PolySoil™ is the UK’s most advanced ring seal soil system for the residential market. PolySoil™ incorporates our single-piece moulding technology that improves the performance and longevity of a soil system, and our Ring Lock Seal technology that stops the seal from distorting and becoming dislodged from the fitting when being installed.

and

Quote

Our new ring lock seal won’t distort once installed. As a result of our white, fixed rigid ring on our new blue EPDM seal, the shape of the seal stays uniformed through the entire circumference of the seal, regardless of how it’s installed. Another great feature of our  new ring lock seal is that the seal cannot become dislodged from the fitting during installation. When combined with our new single-piece moulding technology, PolySoil™  is the UK’s most advanced ring seal soil system.  Look for blue so you know its Polypipe.

 

It was the ' ... the seal stays uniformed through the entire circumference of the seal, regardless of how it’s installed...' that got to me. Its almost as if Polypipe knew that I was first fitting my soil pipes because it '... stops the seal from distorting and becoming dislodged from the fitting when being installed ...' 

 

Thats The One : the One for the incompetent first time PlumBodger: the one that stays sealed no matter how much of a bodge.

 

Now then, off to find a supplier.

Tell ya wot BuildHubbers, if you have an hour to waste, try finding one. Go on, I dare ya! Oh, they are listed alright, but when you ring up nobody , and by nobody I mean not a single one of the listed suppliers knew what PolySoil was . And its been supplied according to Polypipe since August 2019.

 

Ring the Rep. Nice bloke. 

Yeah mate, pop into XYZ company in Morecambe. They have it. I was there Tuesday and they have it in stock.

 

Greased lightning visit to said plumbing shed.

I'm no shrinking violet - but the vision of disdain and sourness from the two 30 something very overweight females on the desk made my withers shrink, in fact they disappeared into my stomach.

 

Both identical jerkins, identical glasses, identical resting gaze - would have shamed a Sour Puss. Eying me warily. I'd been careful to wear work trousers and jacket.

 

Deep breath Big smile -

Me                                  I'd like some PolySoil piping please - about 4 meters.

LeftHandSourPuss     Got none  

Me                                  Ermmmm, 

RightHandSourPuss   You mean Polypipe

Me                                  No, PolySoil

LeftHandSourPuss     Got none  

Me                                  Ermmmm, 

I looked at the floor; New Big Smile tried again. Same result.

 

And then, a ray of sunshine. A bloke with a smile walks past (wearing same jerkin as the SourPuss twins) and says

 

Come round the back and I'll show ya what we've got.

Brilliant. Off round the back to look in SourPuss' Den.

 

He showed me the racks of Polypipe that they had. All of them full of bags of white plastic bags each with a few fittings in them. Not one individual fitting to be seen - just a sea of white bags.

He rips one open.

Hallelullia - the fitting has (as the Polysoil blurb says) a single blue EPDM seal.

 

Thats what I mean, I say relieved, delighted even : Polysoil pipe

Is it?  he says  .... We call it Polypipe

Why? I ask. And then explain how I came to ask for PolySoil instead of Polypipe

 

This bit takes some believing (well for me anyway)

 

" Well the order number is the same, and as you can see the parts come in white plastic bags. So we won't nercessarily know that these  bits of the Polypipe range have become Polysoil - we don't even see them - we dont need to because the order and part number is the same as the old range of pipes and parts."

So these bags could be filled with  lemons, you wouldn't know what was in them ......

Yep, I just sell them. I don't need to know.

 

Who's the Dummie? 

Or maybe thats what happens when two Dummies meet in a Plumbing shed. Blind leading the myopic.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Just goes to show the power of marketing hype, re-name an existing product, claim it has magical properties and then have an email ad campaign to try and increase your market share.

 

FWIW, I've never, ever had a problem with a push-fit soil pipe, other than having to pay the sometimes ludicrous price from our nearest merchant (bastard charged me ~£15 for a slip coupler I needed in a hurry, when they are about a fiver from anyone else).

[Gone West]

23 hours ago, AnonymousBosch said:

It was the ' ... the seal stays uniformed through the entire circumference of the seal, regardless of how it’s installed...' that got to me. Its almost as if Polypipe knew that I was first fitting my soil pipes because it '... stops the seal from distorting and becoming dislodged from the fitting when being installed ...' 

I used Floplast and never had any problems will seals distorting etc. The important thing is that the pipe ends are chamfered and to use a smear of silicone grease on the pipe end before assembling.

[Oz07]

They always charge  more for slip couplers than normal. It's a rip off

[Russell griffiths]

Yep, chamfer pipe ends and use the proper lumbricant, keep a rag handy or it will be like wrestling a greasy pig. 

[Nickfromwales]

3 hours ago, Oz07 said:

They always charge  more for slip couplers than normal. It's a rip off

Just buy a regular socket and one with just 2 or 4 locations tabs ( bump stops ) and ping them off with a small cold chisel.

Instant slip coupler and no trip to the merchant if you already have one to hand ? 

[Oz07]

Yep done that a few times 

[Jeremy Harris]

In my case I only realised we needed a slip coupler after the chap with the digger had dug a hole, when we spotted that it would be the easy way to quickly reposition a P trap.  I could either do a 20 mile round trip to buy a slip couple for around a fiver, or pay nearly three times that from the BM a mile and a half up the road (who's well known to be a rip-off merchant).  Overall it was cheaper to just get the more expensive once, so we could get the job done whilst the digger was still on site.  Still rankles, though.

[ToughButterCup]

3 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Just buy a regular socket and one with just 2 or 4 locations tabs ( bump stops ) and ping them off with a small cold chisel.

...

Normally I would simply hide my ignorance,  but since I'm the OP .....

• Whassa location tab?
• Whassa bump stop?

I know you're busy...quick pic will do. 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

16 minutes ago, AnonymousBosch said:

Normally I would simply hide my ignorance,  but since I'm the OP .....

• Whassa location tab?
• Whassa bump stop?

I know you're busy...quick pic will do. 

 

 

 

Straight couplers, for joining two lengths of soil pipe, come in two flavours.  The normal one has internal stops to allow the pipe to be inserted and then be restrained from further penetration.  The snag with this is that sometimes you have a constraint that stops you moving the two bits of pipe to be joined far enough apart to be able to fit the coupler.  A slip coupler has no internal stops, so can be slid completely on to one pipe, the pipes positioned so they are virtually touching each other, and then the coupler slipped back so that it's centred over the joint.  Slip couplers are less foolproof to use, as they need to be positioned in exactly the right place over the joint, but are very useful at times.