Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Plumbing => Topic started by: adamant on November 17, 2015, 10:36:14 AM

Title: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: adamant on November 17, 2015, 10:36:14 AM

I see the stuff on eBay and they claim it's supposed to be just as good as the insulated PEX pipe that comes with the Central Boiler unit. What's your guys opinion on this? This is that five wrap insulated

Title: Re: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: AirForcePOL on November 17, 2015, 01:01:39 PM

I'm not sure what type of pipe that is but if I had to guess I would say that it's Badger.  I don't have any personal experience with Badger pipe but if I were going to consider a wrapped product I would only consider Z-Supply.  But that's just me...

Title: Re: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: hondaracer2oo4 on November 17, 2015, 01:21:11 PM

The heat loss of that pipe and other foam wrap in drain tile type piping likely has the same comparable heat loss numbers to logster and thermopex with one huge basic problem, water infiltration. Logster and thermopex will never have water intrusion. The drain tile type product will likely get infiltrated by water at some point and when that happens the pipe will be rendered useless and you will be unable to get the heat from the boiler to the house without losing a majority of it on the way to the house and on the return trip back.

Title: Re: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: mlappin on November 17, 2015, 01:42:39 PM

What they said^^^

If you can’t afford or don’t want Logstor then I’d go with the new double walled tile that Z-supply offers.

I did the cheap route on my underground pipe on my first install over a decade ago, worked quite well actually for a number of years, last three years though took a lot of wood to keep the snow melted off over the pipe for 118’.

Title: Re: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: tinfoilhat2020 on November 17, 2015, 05:26:08 PM

I used the double wall performaflex XT from z supply......great product. Make sure to cap both ends and you should b good to go.

Title: Re: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: Sloppy_Snood on November 17, 2015, 05:28:44 PM

My 2 cents:

Consider purchasing $1000 "less of a boiler" before you purchase a "lesser than Logstor/Rehau" polyurethane insulated pipe."  :thumbup:

Water infiltrated wrapped PEX pipe stories are plentiful on the internet forums. ;)

A "pay me now or pay me later" situation as far as I am concerned. :o

Title: Re: Off brand Insulated pex for wood boiler
Post by: juddspaintballs on November 17, 2015, 05:35:38 PM

If you run it inside of 6" PVC, it should work fine.  By the time you spend that kind of money, though, you could get Logstor or Thermopex.