Polypropylene piping

[MikeHolm]

Has anyone been using PolyPro tubing of the water side of HPs? I know the Germans have a couple of companies making it in straight lengths, not coiled. You need a heating tool to fuse the pipe to fittings. Copper pricing being what it is, I thought I'd ask.

[Bigfreeze]

Has anyone been using PolyPro tubing of the water side of HPs? I know the Germans have a couple of companies making it in straight lengths, not coiled. You need a heating tool to fuse the pipe to fittings. Copper pricing being what it is, I thought I'd ask.

PPR is time consuming. Alot of prep time per joint. Have you looked into multilayer pipe and pressfittings?

[Magoo]

Here, Rehau [ spell check ] from Germany are pushing that product through the plumbing trade. Horrendously expensive. Sags and needs brackets everywhere. Not worth the risk of being plastic and being expensive. Try looking at seamless stainless and compression fittings for small bore applications, up to 5/8 " bend it with regular benders.
I did a project using ABS supposedly good for -10' C for a glycol system, the mains were stainless 100mm, branches ABS. WRONG., any movement and the ABS radially cracked. Ripped out all the branches and replaced with stainless. No money made on that project.

[MikeHolm]

I use Rehau all the time for running floor heating, best oxygen barrier in the business 1/2' material is about $1.5/m so the price is not too bad. We cannot get the straight lengths here so everything looks like spaghetti if you want to use it for mains piping and it is not professional looking. Thin walls seamless SS is not available here in any real way but i would love to have it.

ABS should never be used for anything but drains, in my opinion. Can you point me to a couple of SS manufacturers with fittings?

Thanks

[MikeHolm]

I have used multi-layer tubing, if you mean PEX-AL-PEX or something similar. There are issues with the AL barrier breaking when the tubing is bent tightly and the O2 barrier is compromised. It still doesn't look as nite as straight pipe, though.

[Bigfreeze]

Depends on the supplier. Some far superior to others. Have you dealt with Viega. Their pipe is top class. If done right its not far off copper (not quite as good I'll concede) but its far quicker and 100% leak proof. I have a REMS benders that cuts down on the amount of fittings required considerably. PB-AL-PEX is far more flexible but more expensive than pex-al-pex

[MikeHolm]

Yea, Viega is in Canada with tools and copper compression fittings but not with pipe, I think I will start to look for more options. Polybutylene has a really bad rap here because a company called Quest made a lot of floor heating tubing many years ago out of it and it was c**p and there were a lot of lawsuits in the US because of it. I'm ashamed to say that I put some in before PEX was introduced (dated myself didn't I). It wasn't a composite pipe though.

[Bigfreeze]

I read that somewhere before. Total opposite here. PB is the best quality pipe with the best flexibility. That company must have been absolute dung.

ABS is fine for heating. Seen some serious installations in mainland Europe done with ABS. It can be dodgy on glycol loops though. There is another pipe, similar to ABS that is designed for low level temps. The name escapes me now though

[MikeHolm]

It may be worth finding out what the options are and perhaps importing some. I would like to know more about the PB tubing you mention.