Quote:
Originally Posted by hrench
"Water hammer" if you didn't know, is a pressure spike that occurs when you close a valve quickly on moving flow, which can cause instantaneous spikes of pressure as high as 400psi or more. Water hammer--with air--is what explodes PVC pipes.
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Water hammer produces such high pressures because the water is incompressible and massive, so stopping it suddenly requires a large, quickly applied force - hence a hammer. Air is light and compressible. In fact, small vials of air are used as water hammer suppressors. Bottom line is, that I don't think that the problem with air in PVC is really water hammer.
I'm still planning to replace those PVC barrels.