central heating - plastic pipes

[Huge]

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 01 February 2014 11:04 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

That looks like a very specific make/type problem rathe rthan a generic problem with PB:

plus they have acetyl fittings.

Otherwise, I would hope JG Speedfit wouldn't be selling the stuff (Layflat) if PB had an inherent problem.

But I could forsee PEX maybe having x% better liftspan vs JG Layflat...

One thing is for sure - PEX would have been a bastard to form into a tight double spiral...

[Huge]

There have been class actions against other suppliers of PB plumbing. I wouldn't knowingly install it.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 01 February 2014 13:14 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Really? That's interesting...

Bit late now! Anyway, it's only a UFH loop in a solid ground floor so the potential for damage is pretty much zero (other than it fails and has to be disconnected and the floor allowed to dry out over time).

If PB is that bad, why is it being (re-)marketed? I assumed it was because some known problem has been overcome...

[Huge]

I ended up looking into it when my Mother sold her house in Pennsylvania. It came up in the survey that she had PB plumbing.

(That and the guttering discharged onto the ground outside and because the people who mowed the grass had dislodged the bits on the bottom of the downspouts that dispersed the water, her crawlspace was full of damp. It was an interesting exposure to another culture.)

Dunno. I'm still using copper.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 01 February 2014 15:17 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

As I will be everywhere else - don't you worry about that :)

Don't have a lot of choice with UFH - it's going to be some form of plastic (I suppose plastic clad soft copper is possible, but it seems very uncommon to use it for UFH).

Happy to report back in 20 years (if I'm still alive!). As I said, zero risk of consequential damage here, so not a big issue and UFH always carries a risk of failure - so I will consider it "nice while it works".

The way I read that report, it did seem to be fittings that were at fault as it seemed to be those that differed between the actionable vs non actionable groups.

[dennis]

They are even more specific in that they are internal fittings and are crimped. They are nothing like the O-ring + grab ring systems.

[chris French]

In message , Tim Watts writes

AFAICS, reading the stuff on it in particular this:

It seems to be about the fittings rather than the pipe (other PB plumbing systems are specifically excluded). Though what the problem was with it isn't clear.

And the fittings are internal crimped ones and are nothing like the pushfit ones we have.

And the pushfit fittings are the same regardless of the pipe material anyway.

[Onetap]

Those problems in the USA with polybutylene were caused by defective fittings rather than the actual pipe. There was a big class action case that was all over their press.

Polybutylene pipe was withdrawn from the US market. PEX enjoys a better reputation, but I think it's too early to decide whether one outlasts the other.