How easy is it to repair a PVC tank liner?

Unfortunately accidents happen.  Accidents can happen to flexible PVC tank liners as well.  Sometimes an operator can drop something sharp on a liner, or a liner can be unfolded when still cold, or something heavy with a sharp edge can be dragged across a floor liner, or a heater could burn a hole in a liner.  No matter what the cause of the damage, one of the benefits to a Witt drop in PVC tank liner is that it can be quickly and easily repaired.

Repairing bonded liners or applied coatings typically involves bringing in an outside expert at considerable time and expense.  Not so with a flexible PVC tank liner.  Repairing a flexible liner simply involves applying a patch to the damaged area.  That’s it!  There are two methods for applying the patch – hot air welder and flexible PVC adhesive.

For either method the critical step is cleaning the area to be repaired.  Assuming the PVC liner hasn’t aged to the point where it won’t accept new material, the cleaner the repair area the better the patch will adhere to the liner.  Grind the repair area with a grinding wheel or sand paper to remove any surface chemical that has been absorbed into the liner.  Then lightly wipe the repair area with a solvent cleaner.

Scrap material for making repairs is always sent with a Witt PVC tank liner.  If you don’t have repair material we can always send you more.   Any formulation of PVC will weld to any other formulation.  It is easier to apply a patch to similar thicknesses of material though.  Cut a patch piece that is a few inches bigger in perimeter than the repair area.

If using a hot air welder simply place the tip of the gun between the patch material and the liner itself.  As the materials begin to melt come over top of the patch piece with a roller to apply some pressure to fuse the two materials together.  When using the hot air welder method as soon as the patch is applied the liner is ready for immediate service.  There is no cure time needed.

If using adhesive, be sure the can is labelled either “For Flexible PVC” of “For PVC Sheeting”.  Other types of PVC adhesive will not work.  Apply a liberal amount of adhesive to both the patch and the repair area.  Apply the patch and use pressure until the adhesive becomes tacky.  The adhesive can take a couple of hours to fully cure.

Repair instructions can be found on our website here.