Which one to choose - ABS or PVC Plastic Pipes?

There are quite a number of factors which you should look into before choosing pipes for your building. The major among them are

Longevity

Local plumbing codes

Material availability

Ease of use

Others

When longevity comes into picture there isn’t any specific reason to choose one over the other. If the pipes are installed correctly either ABS or PVC pipes will serve longer that what you expect.

So now the question arises again.. How to choose?

First and foremost thing to do is to check with your building inspector. Some of the local building codes allow either PVC or ABS.

If the code allows both PVC and ABS, you can go ahead and make the selection at your local home center. There is much wider selection of fittings for each one of the types. So it is your choice to decide which one to go with. Always go for big selection.. which makes your plumbing life easier.

If the code and selection both fail, you can probably go with ABS.

ABS is little easier to work with and it is joined only with cement unlike PVC, which requires purple primer and cement. ABS is also easier to cut and is more flexible comparatively.

For any reason if you need to combine both of them during a remodeling project, don’t simply cement both of them together instead, use a rubber transition coupling with stainless steel clamps.