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[jcappe]

Which one of the many insulated underground piping did you use?
My Woodmaster dealer has the type that is wrapped in the foil looking insulation and then stuffed in a 4" drain pipe.   Not sure if that is the way I want to go or not.  He claims at 70'  there is a 2 degree heat loss.

[willieG]

7 years  ago i used the same as you..that  was about all the  choice you had...my stove is 250  from the house and  i think i lose  about 7 degrees in a 500 foot round trip counting  what  heat  loss there is in the bare copper pipes in the house and what leaks off the  uninsulated domestic water heat exchanger

i will be building another  stove  for  my newly aquired "other property" maybe this  year..i am thinking of  the  newer stuff that is  foam over the pipes inside a  plastic  tile..but i think i will also  run it  down  another  unperferated  tile....i am  thinking  heat  loss to dead air around the heat  pipes  will be  less that  heat  loss to moist dirt around  them?

my next  furnace will be  able  to be  much  closer to the  building ..i am  sure  less  than 100 feet,  so the  expense  won't  be  much  more  for  another tile and  the  option of  pulling it  out  and  replacing it without  digging is  there also (likely  never  need too though)

here is one  type of what i am talking about..there are  many more i am sure but this will give you an idea of what i am talking  about

http://www.urecon.com/english/furnaces.html

[charlie]

jcappe, i used the foil wrap on top of pipe insulation and then put the whole deal thru 6 " drain tile pipe.65 feet. worked for 2 years until the pipe got one little hole.heated the ground the whole winter, as ground water got into the pipe. spend the money for the better pipe. especialy if your run is not that long. i wound up buying logstor pipe and it has worked great! DO IT ONCE! unless you don't mind digging up the ground again. just trying to save ya a headache. my neighbor has a wooddoctor with the foil wrap stuff and guess what? he's heat'n snow. poor pipe performance means more wood and stove tending. that will never go away. i was sick when i saw the snow melted away on the ground. i had a 10 foot area where my pipe left my stove into the ground.

[PhinPhan]

Is thermopex what the woodmaster dealers are selling?  I didn't ask the guy I am getting mine from what "brand" it was.

Has anyone put gravel under there pipe to keep water from laying around the pipe?

[charlie]

phenphan, i think they sell urecon. l got my logstor pipe from a heatmor dealer by me. i put  some pea stone down , then a foot of sand on top of that.then my pipe.also put a drain tile pipe under my logstor pipe to gravity drain any water away from my pipe in the ground. the logstor looks like the pipe central boiler sells. take your time and do it right. you'll be glad you did when it's below zero out .

[R W Ohio]

Cory,
Who are you getting your woodmaster from?

[PhinPhan]

Cory,
Who are you getting your woodmaster from?

Farley Logging.  Out of Gallia County.  Why do you ask?

[R W Ohio]

We have a very good Woodmaster dealer in our area,just wanted to know if it was him.

[jcappe]

Thanks for the info guys!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  I would like to put the Thermo pex or Urecon pipe in but it is twice the money than this other stuff.  I have talked to guys with the pipe the dealer is wanting to sell me and they don't seem to have any complaints?     I just changed the location that I want to put the stove as well,  which of course is further away than it was before. 

[adamant]

thermopex is what i have and it came from the central boiler dealer.

[PhinPhan]

thermopex is what i have and it came from the central boiler dealer.

Does the snow melt along your pipe run?  Are you happy with the thermopex?

[RUGERGUNZ]

I'm not super impressed with the piping my dealer ran.

He has blue styrofoam in two halves.  When the two halves are put together it is about 6" square.  Each half has a groove for the pex tubing, the supply and return pex are side by side

He duct-taped the styrofoam about every three feet and then put it in a heavy plastic sleeve to keep water from touching the pex. 

It works well right now, won't know about how well in winter until well..... winter.

He stated it is $7.50/ft.

[NC4AB]

First off I am a newbie to this board but have had 17 years experience keeping my FIL's Hardy stove running.  We moved to an OWB friendly location 2 years ago and I managed to pick up a used Hardy H2 this spring.

Now I have the task of deciding what to install for the underground piping.  My total run under ground will be 50 feet, but I will need a total of 4 lines (2 for the hot water and 2 for the house heat).

I have looked at the "Time Saver" pipe and was really not impressed due to the supply and return lines running side by side in the same insulation wrap.

I'm trying to decide if it is worth doing my own by using the round slide on tube insuallation sold at Lowes and Home Depot then putting 2 insulated PEX pipes inside a 4" drain pipe, or has anyone tried the "MAXX-R" system?

Thanks for any input.

Andy
 

[Dave in NE Ohio]

Just bought a Cozeburn 250 from my local dealer. Havent dug my trench yet for the install, but I am starting to believe that there is little room for skimping on this piping. I believe Charlie has a great point - "just do it once."

WillieG, I like your idea of using a larger outer casing as a thermal break. Seems like the dual purpose of thermal break and using it as a conduit and being able to reinsert a different inner system could have its advantages too, as long as youre not gonna try to push thru too much length. Who knows, someone could invent the magic bullet next year and the conduit would let you make the swap with minimal or no digging. Worth the money, Id say!.

The dealer I got my OWB from recommends a product called MicroFlex. It comes in single, dual, and quad pipe configurations. It is, I think, made in Belgium. Not cheap at $13/ft., but I see at least one thing about it that kinda sells me - it is waterproof. The foam wrap that surrounds the piping is made of closed cell polyethylene. To the touch it feels like semi-rigid plastic foam, obviously made up of small plastic air bubbles. There is an inner core, which holds the piping (separated) and about four layers of sheet wrap around the core, all tight inside a flexible plastic duct.

Just about anything that gets buried in the ground is gonna try to take on water and it sure seems to me that once you take on water from the side or even thru the end of your casing, youre losing heat BIGTIME!, but only if the foam is permeable.  Ive heard of those wrap systems that fit together in halves and get taped together, but Im wondering how these type wraps keep water away from the lines. Do they really seal THAT well?



You guys can check it out here:
http://www.microflex.be/en/products/uno-duo-quadro.html

Maybe someone is more up to speed than me on interpreting the insulative value numbers on this. I think the .pdf files give some numbers. The stuff you guys already mentioned might be better, and I want to check into that when I get time. All I can say at this point is that I have heard quite a few horror stories about strips of green grass in 10 degree weather and I want to avoid this at all costs. Im not really into cuttiing wood all summer just for the sake of exercise, either, so anything that can be done to make my system more efficient is worth the money to me.

Just to throw something out here as food for thought, Ive heard a lot about using different materials (pea gravel, sawdust, styrofoam, etc.) around the casing. Does it make any sense to think that a good layer of quality clay should be laid in outside of the other stuff to serve as a water barrier? I once heard of guy who had a pond dug that wouldnt hold water because the natural soil in the area was too granular to hold the water in. It kept leeching out. After having the pond lined with clay, it held water.

How important do you more experienced guys think it is to be waterproofed? What other measures can be taken to hold precious heat in?

 

[charlie]

Dave in Ohio. That Micro Flex looks to be good stuff. I used LOGSTOR but i wouldn't hesitate to use the Microflex. You get what you pay for. The better that pipe works the more you get out of your labor to get your wood ready and frequency of loading that stove. Two things that will never go away. My neighbor used the home made stuff, goes thru twice the wood I do. I burn about 10 cords. In all individual racks[10] so i know what i burn. Your doing yourself a big favor,enjoy your stove Dave. Charlie