Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Plumbing => Topic started by: Roger2561 on March 24, 2013, 06:31:14 AM
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Happy Sunday!
I'll be gathering the necessary material to redo the piping in the basement of my house for the OWB. I want to remove the PEX piping the installer used. He did, in my opinion, just enough to make the system work. I think it looks like hell. I want to clean it up by installing either black pipe or copper. Now, I know copper is somewhere around $43.00 for a 10 foot, 1 inch diameter stick. That's outrageous. Black pipe is somewhat cheaper. What are the cons to using black pipe, if they are any? Thanks. Roger
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Roger - To me there is a lot more work installing it as each pipe end has to be threaded. The various fittings like elbows and tees may be more expensive than copper ones but I am not sure on that. There could be a greater chance for a leak but I have very good luck when using both teflon tape and a quality pipe dope on the threaded joints. Are you able to run the remaining pipe with pex tubing?
I had to edit this post as I see the original install was pex. To me copper looks better than black but I suppose thats in the eye of the beholder.
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Wow, I had no idea that copper was that high! :o And cutting and threading black (or galv) pipe is a chore.
My whole house supply inside is CPVC so I will just go from pex into CPVC.
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Pex is by far the best product to use. If you had a stainless furnace I wouldn't use all black iron, it will deteriorate over time and add rust into the system. With a mild steel furnace that may not be an issue as it will be breaking down anyway. Copper would work but I wouldn't pay what it would cost to do it. Is there a reason you couldn't just rework the pex into a better looking job?
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Pex is by far the best product to use. If you had a stainless furnace I wouldn't use all black iron, it will deteriorate over time and add rust into the system. With a mild steel furnace that may not be an issue as it will be breaking down anyway. Copper would work but I wouldn't pay what it would cost to do it. Is there a reason you couldn't just rework the pex into a better looking job?
Thanks for responses everyone.
Yoder - I never gave it thought of potential rust associated with black pipe. My unit is not stainless. I kinda figured that if I'm going to remove nearly everything the installer installed, I might as well check on the feasibility of black vs copper pipe. So I thought I'd ask for opinions. I think I'll check with my CB dealer to see if he has about 30 to 40 feet of the pex the installer used and sold by CB for the redo. Other than being cheaper it certainly is a lot easier to install. I won't be reworking the pex until this summer when the OWB is shut down for the summer. Thanks. Roger
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You can get PEX anywhere
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I love my pex. I cannot imagine ever using pipe again. Not sure what was done to make it look bad. I think mine looks very nice.