Paint the PVC pipes?

[famousdavis]

A friend of mine who owns a pool showed me his pool equipment one day recently. I noticed that his PVC pipes leading to and coming from the equipment was, for the most part, all painted. I asked whether he painted his PVC pipes? He replied, no, his pool builder did. Why? Two reasons: Aesthetically, it looks less glaring (they used a dark gray color spray paint), and it added a UV layer to better protect the PVC pipes from UV degradation.

So is it a good idea or not to paint the sun-exposed PVC pipes that are connected to your pool equipment?

It's worth noting that 1) I live in South Florida, and 2) my pool equipment is on the southside of my house, so it'll get a lot of sun exposure all year long, especially in the winter months.

Thoughts?

[waste]

Paint will help keep the pipe from degrading from the UV. On the negative side, if you ever have to cut in to replace a fitting, the paint is ~hard to fully get off. However, I'd paint any PVC that is in full sun most of the day:)