A video demonstration of how to connect Poly pipe to PVC
A video is worth TEN thousand words. So, we made a video to make sure that the process of connecting PVC to a Poly pipe is ten times clearer.
Poly pipe vs PVC
Most domestic outdoor water lines are PVC pipes, which normally do not bend much. Poly pipes are becoming popular for irrigation DIY projects because they bend well and they are easy to handle.
Long poly pipes, in rolls of 50ft to 100 ft or even longer, are available in local hardware stores. PVC pipes are generally available in 10ft pieces. You will need to glue multiple PVC pipes for lines longer than 10ft.
When required, poly pipes are joined by clamps. PVC pipes are joined by primer and PVC cement (glue).
PVC pipes can handle high water pressure. Regular PVC pipes can handle any water line for domestic use. Poly pipes are available in different PSI (pounds per square inch) grades. The higher the PSI, the thicker the poly layer is, and hence it is more durable.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, the meaning of which is that if anyone purchases anything using the Amazon links in this post, we will receive a commission with no additional cost from the buyer’s side.
Why we needed poly pipe
Our PVC line is a 3/4″ pipe. The PVC pipe needs to be extended to our backyard to set up sprinklers and drips. Hardware stores sell PVC pipes in 10 ft long pieces. We need ten of these 10 ft PVC pipes to cover around 100 ft from the connection valve to the end of our backyard. It is hard to glue each 10 ft PVC with the next one. Moreover, the trench we dug was not straight given that we did not use a trencher.
We researched this problem a bit and learned that there is another kind of pipe commonly called Poly pipes. Poly pipes are available in 100 ft rolls requiring no joint at all for our yard coverage. We finally purchased a 100 ft roll of 150 psi 3/4″ Poly pipe from Lowe’s.
Home Depot did not have the 150 psi grade Poly pipe. Home Depot had 125 psi poly pipes, which should be good enough for backyard irrigation. I was just cautious given that the price difference between these grades is not much.
Problem description
The first part of the line has PVC. Then the poly pipe will be connected to the PVC and run through the garden under the soil. The question is, how will we connect PVC to the Poly pipe. While the use of PVC cement to connect PVC pipes is very common, experts do not recommend gluing PVC with Poly pipes.
Items required to connect PVC to a poly pipe
Other than the Poly pipe and the PVC line, we needed seven items: 3/4″ female adapter, 3/4″ male PVC connector, clamp, primer, PVC cement, PTFE seal tape, and a lighter.
An infographic is worth a thousand words. Therefore, we have provided further details regarding the items in the following infographic.
We have provided a printable PDF version of the image here.
How to connect PVC to Poly pipe
Once again, an infographic is worth a thousand words. This is why we have prepared the following infographic to illustrate the process.
We have uploaded the same infographic as a printable PDF here.
The process is pretty mundane for many people but not for us. We are so excited because everything about garden irrigation is entirely new to us. We did not even know what a Poly pipe was a month ago. Learning how to connect poly pipe to PVC was fun and doing it firsthand from scratch for our garden was exciting. 🙂
Let us know if you have any questions or feedback.
From a Family Blog: Settle in El Paso
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I really needed tips on this topic. When plumbing was initially done in my house and garden, I used ploy pipes, however, these days I am using PVC pipes. I always had difficulty to connect PVC with poly pipes. Until now I have been using GI pipe fittings to connect PVC with poly pipes and you have given me a better solution. Thank you very much
I can’t recall how many times I’ve skipped this one post every time I visit the blog. I have a fear for manual labor and thought I might get bored reading this post. Well, I guess I was wrong. It’s actually not boring but quiet interesting. You’ve made the whole process look easy as it is, well maybe not that easy. Maybe someday I might just put this information into use. Good post by the way.
I really needed tips on this topic. When plumbing was initially done in my house and garden, I used ploy pipes, however, these days I am using PVC pipes. I always had difficulty to connect PVC with poly pipes. Until now I have been using GI pipe fittings to connect PVC with poly pipes and you have given me a better solution. Thank you very much.
Thanks for this post. I like it. It’s very informative and has a great presentation. I learned a lot. Keep up the good work. 🙂
Thank you for your kid words. Have a wonderful evening.
It is a well-detailed instruction on how to connect the PVC-poly pipe that you have given above. What many that want to do it themselves never realized is that there are items that are a must when such task is being carried out such as the glue to ensure that water does not leak out while in motion. I’m thankful for the article and commend you for always using photos to make your points clearer to us.
I am glad to know that you liked the post. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
Thank you for such an informative post, and detailed description. I need to save this aricle for future reference. Maybe, oneday I’m in need of this. The video link is also very useful for beginners.
Thank you! Have a wonderful day.
Thanks for this kind of article. It is very informative. It has the step-by-step procedures for you to do it. I am learning a lot from this.
Glad to know that you liked this post. Have a great day.
This is a very interesting and informative article. Being a Mechanical Engineer myself, I find this article quite impressive. You keep up with the good work. I am getting to learn a lot from your blogs and becoming your fan.
Thank you for the kind words. Have a wonderful week.
Keep posting such descriptive and informative articles. The step by step illustration and video are indeed very good.
I’m learning a lot of informative things because of your blog. I also wonder how you knew a lot of things about PVC? Looking forward to your future tutorials.
I didn’t know about PVC or poly pipes before this summer. I researched on the Internet about how to setup irrigation for home gardens and slowly I started to learn about them.
I went to Lowe’s and Home depot many times to see these things first, and then I started purchasing them. Sometimes, I spoke with the attendants at Lowe’s and asked them vague questions like what things do I need to set up a sprinkler system. Sometimes the attendants were knowledgeable and helpful; sometimes they were not helpful and misleading. After some days, I got a feeling that I will be able to do it myself. There are significant number of videos on the Youtube too, which made me more confident about doing it myself.
Thank you for your kind comments. Have a wonderful weekend.
Usefull information. Thank you.
You could run online, paid for, teaching courses on different plumbing jobs with PVC and Poly Pipes.
Or you could teach people at Home Depot or Lowes and be paid as an advisor.
They would make more business.
Haha ? thank you for the kind words. I wish, I could manage the time to write more such tutorials. I hope I will manage some time in the coming months and write more on gardening and irrigation. I am no expert but I am happy to explore and learn and tell everyone what I know.
Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful weekend.
This web site is very educational and clearly explains how to connect 3/4 in pvc and 3/4 inch poly pipe.
Can one find the the male connector available in common hardware stores or can they be purchased online?
I looked at home depot and lowes .
They may have the 3/4 im pvc male connector but there is no plastic 3/4 in female adaptar to to the poly pipe.
Thank you for asking the question. Common hardware stores should have them.
I found almost all of these items at Lowe’s. Please note that, at Lowe’s, the 3/4″ female adapter to connect with poly pipe is generally kept in a different section than where PVC connectors or adapters are placed. At Loewe’s in El Paso, I found the PVC fittings and Poly fittings at two different ends of an aisle in the plumbing section.
Sometimes I found that Lowe’s run out of such things. The next day the boxes are filled up again.
If you carry the picture of the fittings and ask the attendants near the plumbing section at Lowe’s, they will help you find the items. This is how I was able to find some of the critical items. Please note that these items are not in the gardening section, rather they are in the Plumbing section at Lowe’s.
Thanks again. Have a wonderful weekend.
Wow, that is such a detailed post. I absolutely love the infographic that you’ve come up with. Those are always my favorite because it’s so easy to understand when it shows just a couple of pictures and short explanation! Prior to reading I felt pretty clueless because I never heard of the poly pipes before 🙂
We also have PVC pipes used for our outside watering line so maybe I will attempt this… under the supervision of my husband, of course, haha. Big thank you though, really creative.
Glad to know that you liked this post. Yes, poly pipes are pretty flexible yet durable. They do not need to go in straight lines like PVC.
Thank you for reading the post and writing the kind words. Have a wonderful day.
This is no ordinary DIY project. You had to put on your thinking cap and do something that is off the beaten track. Connecting so many small pipes would have been an ardent task and this innovative thought made things easier.
Kudos to your originality.
Thanks once again for your kind words. Doing this by ourselves has one added benefit. If anything is broken in the future, we now know how to fix it because we built it. 🙂
These tasks are great family activities too. When we installed our sprinkler system and tested it, three of us ran under the sprinkler water in the backyard as if it was raining in the desert. A great experience.
We will publish more on sprinkler systems and drip irrigation in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful weekend.
This applies to every situation. Unless we have something in common even being friends with anyone has no meaning. I am noticing it these days, specially with the younger generation. They do not even need anyone to take their pictures. This frightens me. We all will be so so lonely.
I totally agree with you. All our activities need to be more involving, especially in this era of technology. Have a wonderful Sunday followed by great week.
Have you distinctly noticed this drift in the younger generation around you? Most of my nieces and nephews are in a world of their own. They only meet when there is a celebration. No one on one interaction these day, whatsoever.
Oh, yes. I have noticed that sometimes my nieces keep playing with their own tablets even when they visit each other’s place.
A Very useful article will be a helpful reference for me to use in the future for some of my DIY needs. I am quite a lazy person so I am glad someone took the initiative to write a helpful post about this. Thanks very much.
I am glad to know that you liked this post! Doing it myself was really fun. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Wow what a great idea. If it was me I would have probably replaced most of the piping with only one type of pipe and wouldn’t even have thought of doing this. a Great tip to remember for the future!
I am glad to hear that you found the post informative. We are planning on more posts on gardening in the coming weeks. Have a great weekend.
Awesome, and the photos really help readers understand what to do. Useful 🙂
Glad to know that you think this will be useful for readers. I appreciate your visit and comments. Have a great weekend ahead.
I need to bookmark this. Seems like something we could do with our sump pump pipe that’s just hanging out and dumping water on the lawn.
We are glad to know that you found the post useful. Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful weekend ahead.
I think I might bookmark this as well. My dad has been getting ready for the hot weather that is approaching us and he is tending the garden. I usually go to Home Depot with him, so I might tell about these instructions the next time I see him. I also liked how simple the article was and how straightforward the information was. I do better with videos than with articles, and you provided both. Good job@
I am glad to know that you liked the article as well as the video. I am pretty sure your dad already knows the tips explained in the article. In case he doesn’t, I am very happy to know that you will share this post with your dad. Thank you for visiting and commenting.