Formable plastic plumbing pipe on Discovery H&L

[Nightdrive]

I think it was 'on site story', and they were laying underfloor heating pipes. I was interested to note that the plastic pipe was formable, i.e. the guy bend it round his foot and it stayed there! After just plumbing in my new hot and cold water tanks with 22mm speedfit pipe I realise the benefits of the pipe staying where you put it. Don't get me wrong, I found speedfit superb for getting through the tight confines of my loft without having to bend and rebend copper, and despite the worries of some traditional plumbers, I love the connectors too. But moldable pipe - that would have been better. The speedfit has 'memory' in that it wants to return to the coil it came in - and you end up wrestling it.

Anyone know what this plastic pipe is? Is it only for underfloor? I have CH to fit next year, and it's worth me knowing.

TIA

Greg

[David W.E. Roberts]

The shorter straight lengths of Speedfit pipe will bend in a normal pipe bender. They have some memory so you have to bend a bit further to allow for the spring back. So far I haven't used the stuff in a coil so I don't know if this behaves the same.

Cheers Dave R

[Grunff]

The stuff in a coil behaves as if posessed by demons, and should be avoided by all (unless you have special powers or something).

[Mark]

Haha, I just found that out... :-)

Mark S.

[IMM]

Then use copper and brass push-fit joints. Using straight rigid lengths of Speedfit is not different to using copper. Copper is far cheaper and you can use brass push-fit or plastic fittings.

[Grunff]

When doing a straight 3m run, yes, copper. But the straight lengths of pushfit can still be snaked around (more easily than the coils in fact), so they still save on elbows.

[Grunff]

That should of course read "straight lengths of speedfit can still"

[Peter Parry]

I wonder if this explains why, on a nearby building site, the usual non-working hours anti-theft precaution of dangling things like generators 100ft in the air on a crane was embellished recently by having 4 very long lengths of plastic pipe between generators etc and the crane hooks. Decoiling it?

[Nightdrive]

So, basically, no-one can answer my question then!!!

[Grunff]

Now why didn't I think of that?

[IMM]

I certainly would not use that pipe on a water system afterwards.

[IMM]

Probably Santoprene underfloor pipe.

[Toby]

Distributed by Unipipe(.co.uk) Continental-UFH(.com) in Devon use and supply this.

" the latest multi layer pipe constructed from cross-linked polyethylene (PE-Xc) sandwiching a layer of aluminium. This provides supreme strength and is guaranteed to be 100% oxygen impermeable, unlike PEX or PB pipe. It is quick and easy to fit because it holds it shape when bent. "

Thicker walls means it's more a proprietary system than regular push fit stuff.

Toby.