Method for bending a plastic pipe including arranging a bending portion of a plastic pipe in a heating zone of a heater and performing contactless local heating of the bending portion, wherein the heater is adapted to provide a first predetermined temperature difference between a neutral zone of the bending portion and a compression zone of the bending portion and a second predetermined temperature difference between the neutral zone and the compression zone of the bending area and an expansion zone of the bending area, introducing bending forces on holding regions arranged on the plastic pipe at a distance from the bending area and/or introducing bending forces on the bending area for deforming the plastic pipe into a deformation position and cooling the plastic pipe in the deformation position.