Auger Pipes

Rob R. wrote:Update. PVC pipe still looks/works good, going to run it another season.

That is very interesting. The PVC will not corrode but I would have thought it would ware out in a season due to the abrasiveness of coal.

Has your Dad run Buck through the PVC pipe?

-Don

Only a ton or two. Mostly rice.

i have a piece of ten inch pvc schedule 40. I use it to transfer rice coal by gravity to a lower bin that is on a hillside 16 ft long the coal moves quickly and is a a slope higher the the angle of repose. I have seen no pvc wear in 6 years of using it . There is no compassion like a auger pipe but it has seen volume and speed of rice coal.
I have seen no bits of white pvc in the lower bin and I need to sometimes rake it to auger point, end gives me a good look of the rice coal get every stage, of completion . just point of information]

nothing like stainless if you are in for the long term though

I have stainless pipes on mine, they have held up great.

Here we are ~4 seasons later, and the PVC pipe finally needed to be replaced. It only showed significant wear in one area, and that was inside the pipe coupling. Although I was careful to only snug the set screws, I think the screws deformed the pipe enough to cause a high spot that got worn.

We also removed the aluminum pipe that goes into the pot, and noticed some wear in the area around the gas holes. Can't complain too much, the pipe has had about 40 tons of coal put through it. I noted that the gas holes in the old pipe were 1/4", compared to 3/16" in a new one from EFM...so I drilled 3/16" holes in the new pipe. Ended up using a single piece of 304 stainless pipe, with no pipe coupler.