PEX and heat expansion

Jan 21, 2006 4 Replies
K

Installled Zurn PEX water supply in a new home single fam residental, The home is a ranch with a long 3/4 run from one end to the other. My installation of my mains were perfectly straight initially, But during the final inspection I ran the hot for a long time to fill the jet tub on the far end of the house. By the time the inspector and I made it to the basement the hot was completely serpentine from one end to the other. I anticipated some heat expansion but not to this extent! Well, the inspector intially approved the job then called me the next day and left a message indicating I needed to take some corrective measure's, but did not specify. I will try to talk to him on Monday. In the meantime, called my local Zurn representitve who could not offer any real solution other than an expansion loop. He also said I was the first to call with this kind of problem. The expansion loop may be the best idea for all I know, but I thought I would post and see if anyone has had this issue before and what they did to take care of it.



Thanks in advance,



K.


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M

Yes, this has happened to me also. I solved the problem by making sure that at least one end of the 3/4 hot run is not prevented from moving lengthwise a bit. This usually means leaving 18 inches or so of pipe unsupported after the elbow or tee on the end of the run.

MM

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N

pex expands 1 foot for every 100 ft for every 100 degrees of temp rise. I put clips on my 3/4 mains at evey floor joist. Never go more than 16" between clips. With open truss system you need to attach your mains to a piece of straping or run them along the center support beam bottom line... clip the s*it out of it. Your rep is full of s*it or stupid as this is one of the most if not the most common complaint about PEX. I crack up when people use pex as the return in baseboard heat on long runs; they fire it up and it expands soo bad it pops the front of the enclosure off.

Always leave room for expansion at the end of long runs. This is CLEARLY explained in the instructions and it voids the warranty not to do so.

BTW I use Wirsbo, it is much better product / company.

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K

Thanks Ned for the usefull info regarding heat/length/expansion info. That's probably in the instructions too but as you might have guessed I never read them.After talking with the Inspector, I am adding an expansion loop, then I will change the clips to 1" to allow for movement and put them at every joist instead of every other like I had.That should make everyone happy. sooo until next time...... Thanks Again!

K.

0500, kevl>Installled Zurn PEX water supply in a new home single fam residental,
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