Saving Lives

[jeffcdntech]

Out for a furnace maintenance today for a regular customer.

Walk into the furnace room and notice something very wrong.

Venting failed on the water heater vent not on the glue joint but on the elbow itself. Fifteen years old.

This is why Canada banned ABS pipe for all new HVAC installation work August of 2007.

After showing the shocked owners I asked if they had smelled fumes or had headaches. They said no and had just returned from an extended vacation.

Someone was looking out for them

Cut out the faulty section and added new pipe and fittings.

I think they will be calling for a quote on an electric water heater

[CDNtech]

Jeff, it's code now in Ontario, whenever making alterations to ABS venting, inluding fixing a crack, all the venting has to be changed out to ULC S636 PVC. Just a friendly reminder

[ct_hvac_tech]

I have never seen ABS piping used for venting before. Can you legally replace it with PVC?

Back before I came to work where I am now, the idiots that installed A/C systems used ABS for the drain lines in every single one of them. You don't know how many freaking repairs in attics I have made to the stuff. Stuipd.

[mhunterdts]

Check out:
http://www.birka-white.com/cases/abs-pipes.php
Evidently ABS pipe was defective between 1985 & 1986. There is a class action law suit with $ in the bank for repairs!

[CDNtech]

Up here we've been using ABS venting for ever. Problem was there was never any plastic piping approved for venting combustion, we always went by manufacturers recommendations. What the "governing body" was finding is that ABS in rare occasions was cracking do to high temps, usually in spots were installers had put the ABS together under a lot of tension. So up here now we have approved S636 PVC rated for combustion venting. This is the only plastic combustion venting we can use. Problem is, there is so much ABS out there they could not justify putting it in code that it all had to be changed. It needs to be inspected annually and if any repairs or changes need to be done it has to be completely changed out for the PVC. We're still allowed to use ABS for combustion air.

[jeffcdntech]

It needs to be inspected annually and if any repairs or changes need to be done it has to be completely changed out for the PVC. We're still allowed to use ABS for combustion air.

As per TSSA's newsletter dated June 2007 System 636 PVC for furnaces and CPVC for water heaters only needs to be installed in the exhaust run for new installed equipment. If a component such as an elbow has failed it can be replaced with the original materials provided the rest of the run of vent is in good condition.

If there has been a ruling chane I am unaware...HRAI member and former TSSA Quality Assesed Contractor(program ended) So I am pretty current on things.

I like your handle

If you have a url or something else showing a ruling change let me know thanks.

[CDNtech]

If you have a url or something else showing a ruling change let me know thanks.

Here's what I was refering to see #21

http://www.tssa.org/CorpLibrary/Arti...62752B71C8168D

So from what I understand it needs to be replaced, eventually as per #22
Gotta love tssa, make everything clear as mud

[mario_m]

No repairs to ABS venting. Replace everything with 636, otherwise the same thing will (eventually) happen again.

[maniak]

that's what I was thinking. I know replacing the vent system sux for the HO but like you said at the start; you know why it happened in the first place, let them know that things have changed and they need a new kind of venting.

[rich pickering]

Sask just put out a bulletin that any change in appliance requires new venting. Assumption is that repairs should be new too.