Finally finished my replacement of the galvanized pipes

I finally bit the bullet and did it. I replaced all my hot water lines with PEX. This is one of those jobs I'd been pussyfooting around with. But today for some reason I finally got the gumption up to do the entire job the proper way.

What a colossal pain in the ass that was. It wasn't the PEX that was a pain, it was getting rid of the galvanized that was the pain. Crouched down in the crawlspace with the spiders whacking away at the foundation for 2 hours to open up the concrete just enough to get rid of a single 1/2" elbow that was buried in a 6" beam on top of the foundation. I don't fear spiders any more after that ordeal. The rest of the hour was spent pulling 3/4" PEX line through that hole in the foundation and hoping the PEX wouldn't snag on a nail or sharp rock. I ripped the hell out of the sheetrock in the garage stringing the PEX up to the water heater - no biggie I'm replacing it all anyway. I turned on the juice and voila - I forgot to crimp the 3/4" inlet into my manifold. The amount of water was dramatic - especially since my water is about 30 psi, maybe more. So after crimping that I tried again and this time no problems so far. I have 2 lines that I suspect need to be corrected, but I'll have to get to them later - the crimp ring is a little too far away from the fitting for my comfort.

The difference in water pressure is astonishing - I can actually take a shower without cranking up the hot water tap all the way. I might even be able to turn down the water temp on the heater - right now its at 160 F to compensate for the lack of pressure I was getting.

I tell you one thing, I had the 3/4" line suspended from J hangers in the crawlspace to keep it relatively supported, after turning on the water the PEX line sagged and expanded dramatically. It almost makes me wonder if I should go back in and use something other than J hangers.

I ought to upload some photos of this, assuming it holds I'm pretty proud of this job.

Reply to
Eigenvector
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Anytime I do plumbing without drowning someone I pretty proud too.

It really isn't my thing.

Reply to
greg6755

You should be proud of yourself for being able to do all of that withough having to deal with a plumber. In so far as your J hanger question, would it work better if you used more if the hangers? I'm having trouble picturing this.

I had my own plumbing adventure over the weekend, includung my first attempt to solder copper pipes. I can say that my vast experience dealing electrical soldering electrical stuff helped a ton. I didn't even bother practicing and everything worked great.

Reply to
scott21230

I'll never run a hot water line again without double insulating it.

What a tremendous waste of water and electricity/gas and comfort!

Reply to
Deke

"Double" insulating it? Wayne

Reply to
Wayne Whitney

Nah. The water in the pipe will quickly cool when the flow stops, even with "double insulation" :-)

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

My system (Vanguard recommends) 7 inches of slack every 50 foot. Horizontally supported every 32 inches.....using tubing clamps of the proper size.

You mentioned a crawl space. The PEX needs to be protected from freezing.

-- Oren

"Well, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it happens, it happens constantly."

Reply to
Oren

Not the case at all. The hot water remains hot for hours in my remote bath. It is so nice!

Reply to
Deke

You live on an unusual planet.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

I would support it more often then every 32 inches, but that's just me.

I am also curious about the double insulation??

Reply to
scott21230

Very simple really,

Use the 4 ft foam insulation sticks from home depot. Then wrap that with 3 1/2 " fiberglass wall insulation in a spiral, and finally wrap clear plastic (loosely so as not to over compress the fiberglass) around that to hold it all together.

Water sitting in the pipe stays hot/warm for hours after a shower.

Reply to
Deke

I just read on the Taco web site (they make the hot water circulating pumps) that plain tubing loses 60 Btu per hour per foot while insulated pipe loses

30 Btu per hour per foot.
Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Mine doesn't

Reply to
Deke

There has to be some heat loss in moving water through tubing. What method of measurement are you using to arrive at 0% loss.

Bill

Reply to
Berkshire Bill

It's a miracle! If 1" of US R5 insulation + 3.5" of R11 insulation has a R16x12/4.5 = 42.6 ft^2-h-F/Btu thermal resistance, ie k = 1/42.6 = 0.0234 and 1' of 1/2" pipe has R = ln(4.5/0.5)/(2Pik) = 14.9 h-F/Btu and C = Pi(0.5/24)^2x62.33 = 0.085 Btu/F and RC = 1.27 hours, 120 F pipe water would cool to 70+(120-70)e^(-3/1.27) = 74.7 in a 70 F room.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

Oh, it is losing something. Certainly the extra insulation helps, but there is a loss.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

At least your toughts are readable !

Bill

Reply to
Berkshire Bill

Failed your reading comprehension, didn't you?

Reply to
Goedjn

The comment about heat loss re-enforced the comment from the Taco site. Where's the flaw in comprehension?

Bill

Reply to
Berkshire Bill

Conflating "not losing 30 BTU/ft/hr" with "0%" heat loss?

Reply to
Goedjn

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