Here's my revelation
Back in the day when I was
green green green I ran a bunch of vents in the upper part of a building without using cleaner. Late 80's trying things out on my own, bareback.
It was cold that day and 4 months later the customer complained of staining in the ceiling.
What happened was a few of the joints pulled apart. Every one of those connections that didn't pull apart, I could literally break loose and you could see that the glue remained in tact to itself, not really bonding the two components together.
That one mistake has kept me from ever going astray from following mfg. specs of the glue and cleaner scenario. I don't even mind the two step process as I don't know it in any other way.
I even take it a step farther; if I feel the primed ends of fittings and pipe have been dry too long from priming, I'll go ahead and prime them again that way the material is at its optimum to take that glue and be softened, knowing those two pieces of plastic are a permanent 1 component. I then take cleaner and clean the outside of the hub to pipe connection to clean up the excess glue, give it a nice finished look without glue dripping down the pipe.
So many times I've been asked to look at drain piping that wasn't cleaned of the excess glue, people thinking it's a leak from the joint.
I've had one glue joint fail over the years, 2" union joint trap under a sink that took years to finally let go. Was running out of cleaner and didn't get a good solvent weld, water contaminated the joint instantly when the water was turned on and years later, the joint pulled apart with the visible proof that the two components never joined.
I use the fast set/bright green cans of cleaner......the type that you have a very short time to hold the joint together. I absolutely refuse to use the brown or red canned glue; garbage in my opinion as it gives too much time for the joint to solidify. If you need that much time to decide whether or not you like the way you put that piping arrangement together to change it minutes later, you shouldn't be doing the plumbing to begin with.
IF you can get the right leverage on a pipe or fitting or really know how to use a hammer effectively by inserting the claw into the fitting, using the end of it, you can break joints down and apart on the larger fittings but you'll hurt yourself in the process.
I've had situations that I've measured 3 times before making up a connection and when you put it someplace you "think" will work......it doesn't.
So in summary I do things that don't stray from industry standard, ever if I can help it.....along the long long trail of liability I open myself up to,
every time I perform work duties at someone's property.
I want to make darn sure that no one calls me back and says that a drain connection broke loose behind a wall....and it's been leaking for months.
I entered this profession in the mid 80's so you old men talk the talk that I never walked. I was still swimming in the ocean.
Well, I was still the eggs and bacon that didn't meet the same plate, yet.
