Polybutelene

[plumberboy]

Im a plumber in Australia and have heard a few bad stories about polybutelene water services. Anybody heard similar? And if so long after installation?

[Hondahead]

The water service is the line suppling cold water to the house. The water distribution system is the piping within the house. It was never legal here to use Poly B for the water service. Polyethelene and copper were the norm, now its mostly Kitec and Municipex. With most Poly B distribution systems problems were showing up in the first 5 years and usally on the hot lines. Poor instalation tecniques and cheap plastic fittings were mostly to blame. Installed correctly with brass fittings, I know of many system that have been in service for over 10 years without problems. I installed alot of Poly B back in the day, even on some heating systems, and can count the number of problems on one hand.(fingers crossed:D )

[bigPipe09]

from what I understand any exposure to uv light will also cause pb to break down and eventually leak...most problems with it were linked to that, and like honda head said the plasic fittings that were initially made to be used with polyb pipe. as far as heating systems go its not really a good idea to Use polyb as it has no oxygen barrier, and can allow air into your heating loops as well as your boiler...

[Hondahead]

as far as heating systems go its not really a good idea to Use polyb as it has no oxygen barrier, and can allow air into your heating loops as well as your boiler...

True enough. But neither does Hepex and its still used alot. In a correctly designed system air can be delt with. All the heating systems I installed using Poly B were open systems using a water heater not a boiler. The water heater systems are becoming popular again, bottom line is they are much cheaper.

[bigPipe09]

yeah the dual purpose tanks are becoming quite popular in my neck of the woods too...i find alot of customers are turned off of boilers because they think the maintenance is too much work and hassle. also hepex does have an oxygen barrier. it doesnt say it anywhere on the pipe, but it does say "non-potable"...you could use it for domestic water but you'd be paying extra for an oxygen barrier you dont need

[BigThom]

Built my personal residence in '84. Installed radiant slab heating with PolyB. 200 sq ft of solar collector provide the heat with a tankless water heater as back-up heat source, using the same in-slab loops. House is 3200 sq ft heated (this system) and the system works just fine.

[plumberboy]

Yeah id just seen alot of bad stuff written about polybutelene on US plumbers web sites when searching on the internet. Some were saying stuff about lawsuits on manufacturer and had me worried coz i just tubed out 2 new homes with it.

[bigPipe09]

so it hasnt been outlawed where you are?

[Hondahead]

also hepex does have an oxygen barrier. it doesnt say it anywhere on the pipe, but it does say "non-potable"...

Wirsbo claims an oxygen barrier in hePex but its still just cross linked polyethylene. It meets the German standard DIN 4726 which is the maximum amount of oxygen permeation permitted for a tubing used for heating. Thats why they came out with Mr Pex (pex/al/pex) to compete with Kitec as being 100% oxygen tight.