Careful with your choice of geo pipe!
 

Just finished a 100 ft geo hole (think showering in cold wet muddy water!) for a window unit extract water heater and learned something that may save you geo folks some $ and knuckles!
The hdpe pipe used in the u bends is not the same outer diameter as the hdpe pipe you buy at Lowes etc! The ubend pipe is generally intended for socket welding (heat the outside last inch of the pipe end at the same time you heat the inside of the elbow or coupling - then insert one into the other and hold til cool for a plastic weld)
So , for ubend pipe and other geo pipe intended for socket welding, the outer diameter is controlled to be the same as you go to different pressure ratings.
But the opposite is true for hdpe pipe intended to be used with interior barb and clamp type fittings - the Lowes Hdepo type - they are controlled to have a constant interior diameter as the pressure ratings change so they mate with the interior barb fittings.
And so the 160 psi pipe I got from Hdepo to connect to my 160 psi ubend pipe were different outside diameters so that the socket weld wouldn't work on the hdepo pipe. Think hours wasted heating, expanding and cooling the hdepo pipe so i could weld it to the ubend pipe at the trench at the top of the hole.
Best thing i came up for the future hole was to buy an extra premade ubend and cut off some of that pipe to weld on for the run in the trench from the hole to the basement. The pipe in the ubends (available locally) was much cheaper than shipping in geo spec scocket weld pipe (not available locally)
Save yourselves a lot of time and $ guys!

Sorry to hear of your frustration.

I ddidn't really know about socket welded U joints, so I made my own U-joints. Made my own welder too.

LOOK_HERE and follow the subsequent posts.

EDIT: This link should be MORE_BETTER


I did 16 holes by hand, so I got pretty good at it. The holes were only 17 ft deep.

I pressure-tested each U-bend at 120 psi.

My U-bends are less efficient than socket welded ones. But if your hole-count is low, the friction losses from the homemade will be negligible.



Best,

-AC_Hacker

I have run in to these problems more often then I want to remember. I've done a lot of DIY. Built everything from homes to kit cars airplanes and heat-pumps.

I have learned its better to pay the price for proper or better than average materials as you are saving money doing it yourself. There is a whole lot of pain when you have to do it again. It may cost more, as you have purchased the inferior materials and now you have to re-do it with the proper material.

Just my humble advice.

Randen

Please not that there is a significant edit on post #2
 

Please not that there is a significant edit on post #2

-AC