Non metallic pressure balanced expansion joints are designed to absorb axial, lateral and angular movements while counteracting/balancing the thrust force, virtually eliminating the need for anchors. The thrust force is absorbed using a combination of external hardware and an additional balancing joint section. They can be designed in an elbow or in-line configuration. The balancing joint section of an elbow configuration has the same effective area as the line joint, where as the in-line configuration requires a balancing joint section with twice the effective area as the line joint. General Rubber’s in-line design utilizes a one piece rubber design for high performance. Other designs utilize three completely separate expansion joints, resulting in a more complicated and less effective overall assembly. The pressure balanced expansion joints can be an important element of an optimal system design for inlets and outlets of load sensitive equipment. The use of restrained expansion joints allows for an optimal design with a smaller footprint. The economic benefit of this design includes fewer guides, anchors and supports.