there are transition cements for low or no pressure - seems to qualify for sewer. And there is a multi purpose cement for abs and pvc for pressure but not meant to join the two variations.
Yes.
The confusion is that some universal cements, now labeled "multi-purpose cement", used to have a label saying "ABS-PVC-CPVC Cement" (e.g. old Oatey Red Label).
This old label implied that it would bond unlike to unlike (e.g. ABS to PVC) which is not true. It merely contained a selection of ingredients so that you could welding ABS to ABS,
OR weld PVC to PVC,
OR weld CPVC to CPVC. As long as your parts were made of the
SAME material, this one cement would do the job.
Now the manufactures have relabeled the universal cement as "multi-purpose" to discourage the label from giving the blatant idea that it can weld mixed materials. Good for them. As many have said, the product doesn't work on mixed materials.
To avoid failure from multi-purpose cement on unlike materials, codes were modified to prohibit gluing/welding/cementing ABS to PVC/CPVC. At the time this covered the condition, because nothing worked to chemically join these unlike materials.
As times change, we find that innovation develops exceptions to wholesale prohibitions. In this case, agents that can successfully fasten ABS to PVC have been developed and been approved for use in non-pressure lines.
They work. They're proven. They're listed by the UPC and NSF as acceptable.
But they are getting caught in the blanket prohibition created years ago. Inspectors see an ABS part next to a PVC part and immediately assume that they are fasten with old non-transition cement. They quote the blanket restriction from their
local code prohibiting any cemented connection.
Legally, they are correct. Technically, they are behind the times, and are stopping the advance of technology.