Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Plumbing => Topic started by: jdruhnke on January 20, 2015, 03:38:58 PM

Title: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: jdruhnke on January 20, 2015, 03:38:58 PM
Does everyone usually just buy their pex from the same person who sold you their furnace?  Would it be safe to assume that they would sell it to their own customers for cheaper rather than calling another boiler distributor who you didn't buy the OWB from?

The guy who i'm probably going to be buying my furnace through sells a couple different types of insulated pex line.
Value Flex @ $8.50 per ft and Rehau Pex @ $12.00 per ft
Between the two he has i'd probably go with the Rehau, but i'm still in the research stage and need some help.

Thanks

Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: mlappin on January 20, 2015, 08:42:55 PM
Rehau is good, never heard of value flex. If you were to go the cheaper route look for a quality five wrap then slide that inside some PVC.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 20, 2015, 11:03:01 PM
How many feet do you need? If not much, you are probably going to pay as much in shipping to get from another source.
I would use Z supply 5wrap before ValuFlex.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: jdruhnke on January 21, 2015, 05:56:54 AM
Ya, the value flex isn't happening...  I aint gonna skimp on this part of the project!

As far as length it may just be me ordering... and if so probably only a total of 170ft.  However my neighbor is very strongly considering buying a stove as well and he will need pipe, also a co-workers brother is building a house and is looking at a used stove and will need pipe as well.  So after that if it would work out, we could be ordering over/around 500ft total.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: agriffinjd on January 21, 2015, 07:18:26 AM
Ya, the value flex isn't happening...  I aint gonna skimp on this part of the project!

As far as length it may just be me ordering... and if so probably only a total of 170ft.  However my neighbor is very strongly considering buying a stove as well and he will need pipe, also a co-workers brother is building a house and is looking at a used stove and will need pipe as well.  So after that if it would work out, we could be ordering over/around 500ft total.

I got the zsupply 5 wrap 1" pex-al-pex and since I needed almost 250', the dealer I went through was able to give a very, very good price on it and have a 250' roll (the size the factory sends to dealers) drop-shipped from the factory to me directly.  If you're interested in that, message me and I'll send you the dealer's contact information.  I've posted about him before and was very happy with him, but I don't want to look like a constant ad-poster.

He was not the same dealer I got my stove from.  My stove dealer had the value flex and badger 3-wrap (I think that's the brand it was) but I didn't want either of those brands.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: woodmaster40 on January 21, 2015, 07:27:00 AM
ValuFlex is not skimping. Don't be fooled by the name. I'm using it in my system currently and it works killer with minimal heat loss. I've just recently changed out lines for a couple boilers and replaced them with ValuFlex. Huge improvement on heat loss from what they were operating at before.

Its 2 1" non-barrier Pex lines encapsulated inside flexible 5" PVC filled with Polyolefin closed cell insulation (R value 8.5).

http://www.flexsulseal.com/ (http://www.flexsulseal.com/)

One point, 8.50 is a little much for it. My dealer sells to me at 6.79 per foot.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: ivy2982 on January 21, 2015, 03:30:42 PM
I got mine here.

http://www.freeheat4u.com/REHAU-1-INCH-INSULATED-FOAM-FILLED-UNDERGROUND-PIPE_p_41.html (http://www.freeheat4u.com/REHAU-1-INCH-INSULATED-FOAM-FILLED-UNDERGROUND-PIPE_p_41.html)
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 21, 2015, 03:43:36 PM
ValuFlex is not skimping. Don't be fooled by the name. I'm using it in my system currently and it works killer with minimal heat loss. I've just recently changed out lines for a couple boilers and replaced them with ValuFlex. Huge improvement on heat loss from what they were operating at before.

Its 2 1" non-barrier Pex lines encapsulated inside flexible 5" PVC filled with Polyolefin closed cell insulation (R value 8.5).

http://www.flexsulseal.com/ (http://www.flexsulseal.com/)

One point, 8.50 is a little much for it. My dealer sells to me at 6.79 per foot.
Unless you are in southern MN or you are paying shipping extra, your dealer is giving it to you very near cost.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: mlappin on January 21, 2015, 10:08:23 PM
ValuFlex is not skimping. Don't be fooled by the name. I'm using it in my system currently and it works killer with minimal heat loss. I've just recently changed out lines for a couple boilers and replaced them with ValuFlex. Huge improvement on heat loss from what they were operating at before.

Its 2 1" non-barrier Pex lines encapsulated inside flexible 5" PVC filled with Polyolefin closed cell insulation (R value 8.5).

http://www.flexsulseal.com/ (http://www.flexsulseal.com/)

One point, 8.50 is a little much for it. My dealer sells to me at 6.79 per foot.

When you say one inch, are you referring to standard pex which is actually more like 1" OD and closer to 3/4" ID? When I went from one inch to Logstor which is actually a tad over one inch ID, just the flow from the larger line made a world of difference.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 21, 2015, 10:32:13 PM
Valuflex comes with standard 1" pex that is 1-1/8" OD and about 7/8" ID
You can get it with 1" pex-al-pex which is the same size as the Logstor pex but unless they changed the way they make it  with the larger pipe, I wouldn't use it.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: Midnight Farms on January 22, 2015, 05:38:53 PM
JD,
Thanks for starting this.  I am also looking at Insulated Pipe, and can't decide which direction to go.  Seeing as I'd like to run four (4) x  1 1/4 pex to the house so I can have 2 supply and 2 return, price and quality of the pipe is important.  Earth Outdoor has quoted me a price for their pipe which seems to be cheap compared to others, however, I am not sure of the quality.  Rahau at $12/ft is a bit pricey.  Any other options out there folks?  I like the idea of the closed cell products - is there a list of suppliers?
Thanks!
~Nick
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: mlappin on January 22, 2015, 08:31:02 PM
Logstor, Rehau, and Thermopex from Central boiler seem to be the top three far as closed cell foam.

Not sure about Rehau, but Logstor runs a touch over one inch ID, its actually 32mm.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 22, 2015, 08:41:17 PM
Logstor, Rehau, and Thermopex from Central boiler seem to be the top three far as closed cell foam.

Not sure about Rehau, but Logstor runs a touch over one inch ID, its actually 32mm.
It is 32mm od and 26mm Id.
Rehau is available with the same size pex but they also offer standard 1" and 1-1/4".
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: mlappin on January 22, 2015, 09:15:28 PM
Logstor, Rehau, and Thermopex from Central boiler seem to be the top three far as closed cell foam.

Not sure about Rehau, but Logstor runs a touch over one inch ID, its actually 32mm.
It is 32mm od and 26mm Id.
Rehau is available with the same size pex but they also offer standard 1" and 1-1/4".

Yep, my bad. In the shop I cheat, I have a few digital calipers and just push the little button to go from MM to inch.

Wouldn't it be nice though if your going to sell something as one inch that it oh I don't know, actually measured one inch?
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 22, 2015, 09:26:50 PM
Not if you make it to have fittings interchangeable with copper. Standard pex is made to copper tubing sizes. They didn't just pull the numbers out of the air.

If they were trying to cheat on the size, they would have made the pipe wall thin like the metric pex.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: slimjim on January 23, 2015, 02:49:52 AM
Are you saying that the metric pex such as Logstor has a thinner wall, I have never measured it but I think not!
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: mlappin on January 23, 2015, 06:15:19 AM
Not if you make it to have fittings interchangeable with copper. Standard pex is made to copper tubing sizes. They didn't just pull the numbers out of the air.

If they were trying to cheat on the size, they would have made the pipe wall thin like the metric pex.

You kinda lost me on that one, I grabbed a set of calipers and measured both. One inch pex has an ID of .865" while the piece of copper tubing I have in the basement measured 1.030".
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 23, 2015, 06:33:47 AM
Not if you make it to have fittings interchangeable with copper. Standard pex is made to copper tubing sizes. They didn't just pull the numbers out of the air.

If they were trying to cheat on the size, they would have made the pipe wall thin like the metric pex.

You kinda lost me on that one, I grabbed a set of calipers and measured both. One inch pex has an ID of .865" while the piece of copper tubing I have in the basement measured 1.030".

OD is same.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 23, 2015, 06:38:18 AM
Are you saying that the metric pex such as Logstor has a thinner wall, I have never measured it but I think not!
Yes, it does. It is SDR11. Standard pex is SDR9.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: mlappin on January 23, 2015, 06:39:40 AM
Gotcha, still rather misleading though as the OD doesn't contain the water.
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: atvalaska on January 25, 2015, 01:18:45 PM
1¼" Wirsbo hePEX...don't fit CB thermo pex
 id 1.054" >1.054in = 26.772mm
 od 1.375" >1.375in = 34.925mm

 1½" Wirsbo hePEX   use them to fit the  CB thermo  ....it  measures 42mm od,32mm I'd... or there real numbers >

 id 1.244" >1.244in = 31.598mm  *

 od 1.625" >1.625in = 41.275mm   *these last 2 numbers are  CB thermo
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: RSI on January 25, 2015, 11:02:10 PM
So, Central Boiler is selling 1-1/2" pex and calling it 1-1/4"
What is the point of that?
Title: Re: Should i buy the Pex from my OWB dealer?
Post by: atvalaska on January 26, 2015, 09:35:08 AM
metric...crap ... I ordered in 1.25 fittings when I got started ..had to order 1.50... and buy the uponor 1.5 head for my tool..