What’s New in Sydney Plumbing: Are Your Pipe Fittings Complying to Australian Standards?

Sorting out the plumbing in your Sydney home has never been so cheap or so easy. With a click of your mouse, you can have pipe fittings from all over the world delivered to your doorstep, and you don’t need to worry about hiring a plumber who works in the Sydney area. But what’s the real price of these cheap pipes?

The DIY culture is going strong, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But from time to time, it can be better to get a professional involved. When it comes to PVC pipes, the most commonly used type of pipe in residential and commercial plumbing, these overseas alternatives are poor quality and do not meet the Australian standards. The Australian standards for pipes may be strict, but they are there for a reason. So how bad are these imported pipes?

For a start, if it’s found that your pipe fittings are of an imperfect quality, any warranty you have can be voided. Secondly, and more seriously, a pipe fitting that is used in a situation that it cannot handle, for instance a stormwater product, will fail and disastrous results may occur. Finally, by buying inferior pipe fittings you are hurting the businesses of local pipe and fitting manufacturers who not only have to compete with a cheaper product, but this poor quality product makes the whole industry look bad. So how do you know if you’ve bought a cheap and nasty pipe fitting?

A product that has been tested to meet Australian standards will be stamped as being so, and there will also be a WaterMark licence number. Though you should still do your research as testing by PIPA (The Plastics Industry Pipe Association) has found that there are number of pipe fittings that claim to meet the standards but they actually don’t. If you want to double-check, get in touch with PIPA.

Pipe fittings seem like such a tiny part of plumbing, but if they aren’t up to standard, there is an awful lot of fallout. It pays to be cautious when it comes to buying pipe fittings, so speak to a plumbing contractor in your Sydney area if you have any concerns.