Where to buy plumbing fixtures etc for heatstick in Canada

Happy Holidays!

I'm trying to build a heatstick as described at http://www.3d0g.net/brewing/heatstick, but I live in Vancouver, BC Canada, and our local Home Depot and Home Hardware etc do not carry many of the parts in the parts list. For example, I couldn't find:
- 12" long X 1 1/2" I. D. chrome drain pipe with slip coupler (only had 1 1/4" ID)
- 6" long X 1 1/2" I. D. plastic drain pipe with slip coupler (nothing similar, especially nothing PVC).

I'd love to buy these items online, but most stores don't ship to Canada for these small items and I'm at a loss as to what kind of alternative parts might work. I don't want to fiddle too much with the build as I don't do this stuff often and am more interested in the result than the process (and I've already been to multiple stores). Any ideas from the Canadians? Online stores (not even any luck on www.ebay.ca)? Local retail plumbing shops in Vancouver? Alternative builds that have been tested and work well? At the moment, my only solution is buy the parts online from a US retailer and ship them to Point Roberts (the closest US shipping depot) and drive them across the border. Kinda crappy just for a heatstick, but it may be the only way. Maybe Santa will come through with a Xmas miracle for me. Come on Santa!

Can you match the required PVC pieces with the size drain pipe you found? If you can get the same sized PVC, it wouldn't be an issue to make the enclosure slightly smaller.

This was very intimidating to me, but out of necessity I finally had to try it. I assure you that it was much easier than it looked.

Sigh. Just ordered everything on amazon.com (not .ca) and shipped it to the closest US shipping depot. Hopefully the build will go smoothly. I only need to pick up a few small items locally, which I know I can get. I'd still like to know what any Canucks have come up with in these situations. Actually, a list of good online Canadian-friendly suppliers for various items would be great.

Airborneguy said:

Can you match the required PVC pieces with the size drain pipe you found? If you can get the same sized PVC, it wouldn't be an issue to make the enclosure slightly smaller.

This was very intimidating to me, but out of necessity I finally had to try it. I assure you that it was much easier than it looked.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestion. I thought of that, but didn't find any 6" PVC drain pipe with slip-joint at all. I was also worried about the screw-element not fitting the smaller chrome drain pipe opening (at least without making further adjustments). I didn't want to have to start assembling components and going back and forth to various stores to get it right (played that game before). Hopefully the items I got online will work out well.

Good luck with the parts you ordered. It sucks that Home Depot didn't have the parts, but even worse wouldn't order them for you. Once you build this one, you'll probably have ideas how to customize your next one based on what works easier for you.