Soldering iron for polypropylene pipes DIY repair

A wonderful material - polypropylene!
From it I make various homemade products for myself and for friends.
I was recently asked to make a small homemade product, or rather a rack. In total, six fittings and a couple of meters of pipe had to be soldered.
But the trouble is: I just gave my soldering iron to my friends for a while, I didn't ask to return it so quickly.

I began to think about what else you can solder polypropylene. I know that they are soldering with a gas torch, but I don't have one.

But there is an old "bucket" soldering iron, which I have not needed for a long time. So I decided to tinker with it.

I needed a few more details.

- wire and plate made of aluminum;

- thermostat and indication lamp from the iron;

- nozzle for welding polypropylene pipes (25mm);

- different bolts with nuts.

Two blanks were made from an aluminum plate: a substrate for a thermostat and a holder for a polypropylene nozzle.

Legs and parts of the body for the thermostat are made of PCB.

Next, I fixed the thermostat itself near the handle of the boiler.

I connected an indicator light to the thermostat terminals. And I connected the insulators with thermal tape.

I connected the top and bottom of the case with screws and nuts through insulators. The lower part of the body does not touch the boiler pipes.

To connect the thermostat in series, a break was made in the power cable. I soldered and insulated with electrical tape the wires along with the handle of the boiler.

I made the legs from aluminum with insulators from PCB plates at the end.

The 25 mm nozzle fits perfectly into the coil of the boiler. On top of the nozzle, an already bent U-shaped aluminum plate is put on. The joints are smeared with thermal paste.

For soldering, I needed a 20 mm nozzle. I connected it with a homemade screw made from an 8 mm bolt.

As an additional radiator, al was also wound on top. larger diameter wire.

During the first test, one defect was revealed, apart from the smoke and the smell from the burning out of the new "device" - not very convenient operation of the indicator. The light is on when the soldering iron is turned off and off when it is working. But this is not scary, but just a matter of habit. Perhaps I will upgrade it in the future.

The thermostat was set to minimum. Heating is fast.I did not notice the difference in the quality of the soldering, since the nozzle itself remained the same, only the heating element changed.

So I managed to make a couple of welding joints with my experimental soldering iron.

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Hello dear visitors! Vitaly is in touch, author of the site> Today, we disassemble and repair a soldering iron for polypropylene pipes from the brand "Wavin ekoplastik"

And the following happened to him. The soldering iron was warming up, but did not reach the required temperature; at times, the sound of sparkling contacts was heard inside.

That's how a soldering iron came to me for repair, which, according to the owner, refused at the last soldering. An urgent repair of the instrument was required, because the owner of the apartment was left with blocked water and would not have held out for a long time keeping her peace of mind! )))

The soldering iron was from the Czech company Wavin ekoplastik, model RSP 2a Pm. In fairness, it must be said that the soldering iron has worked intensively for more than one year. And according to the owner, it is very convenient for installation work. But sooner or later everything fails and needs repair.

So what's inside and outside? The temperature control of the soldering iron is implemented on the microcontroller control. The bundle is working - Temperature sensor, microcontroller, thyristor key. Along the way, a timer function has been implemented, which helps to accurately count the heating time of polypropylene parts, depending on their diameters. The control panel looks like this.

And inside it looks like this: I will not describe the disassembly process, I think this is superfluous in this case, let's get down to business.

If the soldering iron does not heat up, then first you need to find out what is the matter, in the control board or further, in the heating element? To do this, taking precautions, we turn on the soldering iron to the network and measure the voltage at the output of the control circuit.

Of course, there is no need to wait for full heating and shutdown when the soldering iron is disassembled. This is only important in the case of a more complete check of the functionality of the electronics.

In the meantime, just finding out the reason, the fee or the ten? Why doesn't it warm? In my case, there was tension. And the reason for the insufficient heating was not an electronics error.

Let me remind you that in my case, the soldering iron was warming up, but did not want to gain the required temperature. The heating indicator was constantly on, but it should be like this: Heating period - The red indicator is on. Temperature reached - The red indicator blinks and then goes out completely, until the next heating.

It is clear that the reason lies in the chains of the heating element, and it quickly became clear what exactly. To do this, I had to disassemble a little more, you need to get under the protective grill of the heater. Now it looks like this. What's interesting there?

And from the interesting there - Thermal fuse! It was he who could be the reason for the subcooling. It is located under the protective grill, bolted to the heater.

Its function is Additional protection. Although all control - heating, monitoring, switching off and on - is taken over by the electronics, the manufacturers have put additional protection. In case, for example, the thyristor breaks through and the heating element is no longer controlled by the controller.

In the event of a breakdown of the electronics, when a certain temperature is reached, the bimetallic contacts of the fuse will open and turn off the heating element without allowing it to overheat. The principle of work is like in an iron, if anyone is familiar, he understands what I mean.

A more detailed check showed that it was, my instinct did not let me down. The reason for this malfunction is as follows. A pretty decent current flows through the closed contacts of this fuse.Under a current load, over time, the contacts begin to warm up, then slowly burn out - stronger, stronger, and in the end their ability to conduct current becomes worse.

As a result, a sufficient amount of energy for normal heating is not transferred to the heating element. Part of it is lost on these burnt contacts, from which they begin to warm up even more.

Do you remember what happens to the heating of the thermal fuse? With heating, its contacts tend to open. All this only worsens the contact in this circuit even more or breaks it off altogether.

Which exit? Trying to repair a thermal fuse is a thankless and useless endeavor. Even if this works out, it will not be for long and soon you will have to disassemble the soldering iron again for re-repair.

Replace with a new one? This is ideal! But where can I get it? Therefore, the method remains reliable, but radical. Get him out of the chain!

The task is as follows. It is necessary to disconnect the fuse terminal (black wire in the photo) from the contact of the heating element.

Further, on another wire (in the photo, a blue wire), you need to fix a new terminal.

You can, of course, bite off the fuse and connect the black wire with the existing terminal to the blue, but this is not the best option, since the connection will start to warm over time and, moreover, it needs to be insulated.

But ordinary electrical tape is not suitable for this, because there is a strong, natural heating from the heating element, it will melt.

Best of all, squeeze a new terminal on the blue wire, it costs a penny in an electrical store. I had the terminals in the insulation, but I decided to remove it because I am not sure that it will withstand the temperature. It is better to use the heat-resistant cambric that was on the wires.

We prepare the wire and crimp the terminal on it, in the absence of special pliers for this, this can be done with pliers, the compression must be reliable, the wire must not dangle in the terminal.

Well, the electrical part is ready, it remains to collect everything in a heap and check.

Here's another tip on how to fix the wire in the case with a broken latch. See the photo below.

The idea is as follows, we tighten the plastic clamps on the cable. See the photo below.

We cut off the excess, so that we leave enough protrusions on the wire for fixing.

So the wire will be firmly fixed in the assembled case, to which, after assembly, the rest of the part, which is in the form of a spiral, can be fixed with electrical tape.

The check showed that everything is fully functional.

I hope someone will find this note about repairing a soldering iron for polypropylene pipes useful.

Do you think it is necessary? Helpful? Share with your friends, social media buttons below! Thanks!

Readers provided catalogs of components and information on where to get hold of spare parts. There are two catalogs, differing by manufacturer and year of issue.
One of the readers successfully ordered parts after direct calls to the firm.

In his words, they work only with Yur. by persons. I paid 800R for delivery to the transport company.

It may seem ridiculous to someone, but a soldering iron for plastic pipes is completely identical in design to an iron - the differences are observed only in form and purpose. Like an iron, it has two main components - a powerful heating element and a thermostat. The heating element of the soldering iron can be built into either a round case or a flat one. Depending on the shape of this body, soldering irons can have a different design for attaching working nozzles.

The thermostat can be called almost the main device of this soldering iron - without it, the work process turns into a sheer nightmare. He is responsible for the required temperature of the heated nozzle - it is very important in the process of connecting pipes. If the joint is overheated, then the inner diameter may decrease or disappear altogether. If the pipe is underheated, then the tightness of such a connection will be insufficient. In addition, the thermostat additionally performs the function of protecting the heating element - in my practice there was such a curiosity when a failed thermostat led to the melting of the metal head of the soldering iron. On the one hand, it was interesting to observe how the liquid metal melts and flows down, and on the other hand, the thought of having to buy a new soldering iron for polypropylene pipes haunted me - it is not cheap.

• First, it is reliability and durability. You can buy a soldering iron for polypropylene pipes of two types - household and professional. The difference in price between them is enormous - if a household soldering iron costs around $ 100, then the cost of a professional one reaches $ 500.
• Secondly, the complete set of the soldering iron. The cheapest device of this type is equipped with the same far-off-quality nozzles, the Teflon coating of which burns out very quickly. You can also buy a soldering iron for plastic pipes, which has a household purpose, you can complete with quickly breaking pipe scissors and a crippling tape measure, which, as a rule, on the very first day of work, accidentally breaks from excessive pressure applied to it either with scissors or with your hands. But not everything is as bad as it seems - cheap soldering irons also have positive aspects. As a rule, with proper attitude to them, they can withstand work on three or four objects. At their low cost, they pay off literally from the first object - after such a soldering iron fails, it is usually not a pity to throw it away.

Another thing is high-quality imported soldering irons for polypropylene pipes - they are reliable and capable of working almost forever. Their weakest link is the nozzles - in comparison with the soldering iron for polypropylene pipes, their coating burns out relatively quickly. They have to be changed every couple of years - but, thank God, buying soldering iron tips separately from the tool itself is now not a problem.

In general, if we are talking about nozzles for a soldering iron, then it should be understood that the quality of the soldered joint largely depends on their performance - as a rule, they should be changed as soon as polypropylene starts to stick to them.Adhering to the nozzle, it pulls other layers of this material along with it, thereby disrupting the structure of the pipe - as a result, the material at the junction becomes loose and already fulfills its purpose to keep the liquid under pressure so efficiently. Under the influence of temperature, such a joint can leak or burst altogether.

Now about the process of joining polypropylene itself. At the same time, both the pipe and the connecting element (coupling, angle, MRV, MRN) are inserted into the soldering iron nozzle from both sides. With a little effort, they are pressed into the nozzle until they abut against the stopper. Now we detect a few seconds, remove the heated polypropylene from the soldering iron and connect it together. The moment of connection of individual components of polypropylene pipes is very important - it is necessary not only to firmly connect them to each other, but also to securely fix for 10-20 seconds. The slightest shift of the elements during the solidification process will lead to a violation of the tightness of the joint.

The heating time of pipes is also very important - first of all, it depends on their diameter. Thicker pipes take longer to warm up - for example, a pipe with a diameter of 20 needs to be heated up within 2-3 seconds from the moment they are completely seated on the nozzle, and a pipe with a diameter of 32 heats up within 5-6 seconds. Overexposure - the inner hole may melt, underexposure - there will be a poor-quality joint.

As you can see, buying a soldering iron for plastic pipes is not enough to learn how to work it with high quality - as in any business, practice and your own personalized bumps are needed here. In general, try, experiment, and most importantly, do not be afraid to make mistakes. It is from their mistakes that people learn - no one learns from strangers, no matter how popular wisdom says.

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Pipes made from artificial polymers such as PVC have become extremely popular due to their low cost and ease of installation. For this reason, over time, they began to displace classic metal pipes, this is especially noticeable when designing or repairing plumbing systems in apartments and houses. Old rusty pipes are simply replaced with new plastic ones, and they do it in a couple of hours.

But the merit of the quick installation of such pipes does not lie in the skill of the welder. After all, a special soldering iron is used for welding PVC pipes. A soldering iron for PVC pipes can be purchased at a store, while there are quite budget models that do not hit the budget.But what if you are not ready to purchase a new device and want to save money, or just like to make electrical appliances with your own hands? In this case, you can make a soldering iron yourself, and we will tell you in detail how to do this in this article.

The machine for welding PVC products (or pipes made of any other artificial polymers) is an electrical device operating from a standard 220V network, designed for soldering pipes of various diameters.

Before we start assembling this device, it would be nice to know what it consists of. The key elements of any pipe soldering iron are a case with a comfortable handle, a thermostat, due to which the required heating temperature of the heating element is set, the heating element itself, hidden in a metal casing that heats up.

Additionally, the set can be supplied with nozzles for brazing pipes of different diameters. We have devoted a separate material to the topic of attachments, read it to be aware of all the features. Here we will say one thing: it is preferable to use Teflon-coated tips. This ensures that they will not stick to the pipes during heating.

Surely you may have heard that such soldering irons are often called "irons". And this is not casual. The fact is that ten is really visually very similar to the sole of an iron and their principle of operation has a lot in common. Both in the iron and in the soldering iron, the surface heats up evenly, only in the case of a soldering iron, the heat from the heating element is transferred to the nozzles, then the pipe is pressed against them to melt its edge.

In this case, the heating temperature is set using a thermostat installed in the soldering iron body. Temperature control is extremely important, because if it is too high, the pipe will simply melt in the nozzle, and if it is too low, it will simply not be able to warm up evenly. This means that the connection will turn out to be of poor quality and will quickly leak if we are talking about the installation of a water supply system, for example.

Unfortunately, budget soldering irons are not always equipped with thermostats, and this is a big disadvantage. After all, it is difficult for beginners to determine when the temperature is insufficient or excessive. In addition, not all DIYers will use a purchased soldering iron often. And spending a couple of thousand rubles on a device that will gather dust on the shelf for years is not the most rational decision.

There is also another drawback of budget soldering irons - their unsatisfactory workmanship and sometimes a poor-quality finished seam. So why buy a low-quality item and then use it a couple of times and throw it into the far corner? It is better to make a do-it-yourself soldering iron from improvised means and a pair of resistors.

Of course, a homemade gadget won't be as good as a $ 200 soldering iron, but it will definitely help you with one-time minor repairs. In addition, you yourself will know what it is made of, and you will be able to choose better materials. Instead of cheap plastic (which can be found in all Chinese soldering irons), take aluminum. Then your device will be a cut above the budget purchased soldering irons. It is enough to apply a minimum knowledge of electrical engineering.

Let's start assembling. To weld polypropylene pipes, we need an old iron. We need to remove the "sole" from it, it will act as a ten. In the photo it is shown under number 1. We drill a hole in the heating element and fasten the heating elements on both sides with the help of bolts. Next, you need to make a thermostat (number 3 in the photo) and pack it in a heat-insulating casing, it is indicated by number 2.

To assemble the thermostat, use the diagram below. For R1 you need a 500 kΩ variable resistor, for R2 - a 4.7 kΩ 0.5 resistor, for R3 you can take a 1 mΩ, 0.25 w resistor. For VS1, DB-3 type dinistors are perfect, for VS2, take TC 25-4 triacs. For T3H, an electric heater with a power of 1000V is suitable.And for C1 we recommend taking a capacitor 0.1 μF, 400 v. Take an HL 1 neon lamp as an indicator light.

Prepare the aluminum case. In our case, the size is 13x6x9 centimeters. Place the thermostat on the board into it; the board must be made of foil-coated PCB. Bring out the temperature control knob outside the aluminum housing. It is desirable that it has divisions. Additionally, you can equip the device with a light bulb for convenient indication. It will signal that the device is turned on and warming up.

Fix all this on a PCB plate (number 4). Then attach to the heating element and place it on an aluminum stand (number 5). Be sure to place a PTFE insulator between the plate and the casing (number 6 in the photo).

Insert the protruding part of the PCB plate into the groove (its location is indicated by the number 8 in the photo). It can be removed at any time for more convenient storage. You can also build a handle out of wood and attach it to a plate. Everything! The iron for PVC pipes is ready.

Such a device can be used in the same way as a factory-made soldering iron. With the help of such a device, we soldered pipes with a diameter of 20 millimeters, heated them for only 3-5 seconds. Teng emits so much heat that it is enough for fast and quite high-quality soldering.

With this simple method, you can make a fairly effective welding machine for PVC products. In addition, this soldering iron is also suitable for soldering other types of products made of artificial polymers, for example, plastic or polypropylene. Basically, you can buy a set of nozzles in the store and use them in tandem with such a homemade soldering iron. Then it will become a truly functional device capable of soldering pipes of various diameters.

Have you ever used pipe soldering irons in your practice? Have you ever made them yourself? If so, tell us about it in the comments in our article. Your experience will be useful for many newbies. We wish you good luck with your work!