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[Gippeto]

Hi all,

I live on an acreage a bit south of Edmonton Alberta. We built a garage over the summer and have planned to run the in floor heat as another zone off the boiler in the house. After lurking around and doing some reading, I sourced out and purchased 1" Logstor dual (supply and return) pipe for the buried line.

All good so far...not cheap, but will hopefully be reliable. Picked up the pipe and fittings and brought them home. Temps now are fairly consistently below freezing, and I cannot get this stuff to uncoil. Have contacted the supplier, and they suggest keeping it at room temp for a minimum 24 hours before trying to straighten it.

Problem is that I can't exactly get it into the house (the wife has a rifle and WOULD shoot me and the garage obviously doesn't have real heat at this point.

I've a kerosene heater running in the garage currently and have been able to enlarge the coil to ~15' diameter, but it's still REAL stiff and wants to spring back to the smaller diameter. I very much doubt it's going to cooperate to get it into the trench.

Has anyone dealt with this issue successfully? What did you do?

Need some help fellas...REAL COLD is just around the corner here.

Thanks,

Al

[willieG]

gippeto,jsut a suggestion but how about laying your insulated pipe on a tarp big enough to encompass it, fold up the edges till you have it all surround and put the garden hose on your hot water tank and warm it up....make sure you have your trench ready to go and get it there before it cools down again??

it may take a bit of hot water but when you get the boiler going, pay back will be quick

[Trint]

How long of a piece are you dealing with?  When I put mine in ~40' I had get one end started and partially backfill to keep it from springing back to unroll the rest of it, but is was still about 70F out yet, that stuff still wasn't very flexable.  Had pleanty of fun getting it into the house aswell, good luck.

[Gippeto]

Buried run is ~75' + rises/entry on both ends, total length of the pipe is supposed to be 88'.

Hot water might not do it...have been perusing the pdf's from Logstor, and they have a trailer with a "straightening" attachment...looks like a heat box of some sort. Kind of explains why it lays out so nice looking in their pics hmm.

Hoping to get it opened up enough that it'll go in...even if I have to fight it a little...just don't like the idea of really forcing stuff...always ends badly I find.

Tried heating it with a 30000btu ready heater...had a few feet (near one end) of it hot enough to push the surface with a finger and then tried to pull it straight, holding until it cooled...laid it down and it just went back where it was before I started.

Al

[Sdh1218]

How about using the tarp idea by making a large bag with it and put a fan at one end blowing into the tarp and place the ready heater behing the fan. Just keep an eye on it you should be able to get the temp in the tarp up over 70 or so. And keep checking it to see if it's getting more plyable. Also could try to put it out in the sun with a black tarp over it may get the temps up enough.

[muffin]

Just a crazy idea, but could you use the furnace and its pump to do it.  Go ahead and hook up the one end to the furnace system.  Temporarily put a loop back on the other end and fire it up.  That should make it nice and flexible.  Just be careful with the furnace side and don't rip it off.

[Gippeto]

Waiting on a call from a company rep. Also looking for any contractors who work with this stuff..if you know of any in Alberta, please let me know.

Hooking it to the boiler might work, just not sure how much heat loss there will be...enough to warm the casing?  I suppose if it'll melt snow, the pipe has to get warm on the outside first huh. Have zero experience with this product.

Could connect one end as suggested and hook the other end up to a garden hose would need a valve on the "return" end too I suppose...re plumb the hose bib on the house into the domestic hot water...wouldn't take too long to try at any rate. Get it full of hot water, close the valves, let it sit for 15 minutes, drain and refill.

It's a condensing NG boiler with a plate exchanger for DHW...should be enough hot water.

Will have a look and see what I need to try this out when I get home.

Thanks, and keep the ideas coming please.

Al

[willieG]

the more i think about this the more i think any thing you do will not be much good?

the logstor is insulated with closed cell foam to protect you from heat loss....you heat the pex with hot water  and you may help a little but not much heat will get to the outside of the foam to makeit more flexible. you heat the outside and it will not likely get any heat to the inside.
i think you need to get the hardest end in first...hold it down(somehow) and unwind the coile so as to not put any kinks in it (outside your trench) and  then force the easy end into position and hold it there (again somehow) now by the time you have both ends where they belong you should have the pipe in the trench and start backfilling

i know it is hard stuff to work with but pex pipe is pretty forgiving as long as you don't KINK it

[Gippeto]

I'm still waiting for an email with information from the factory rep. The guy said he was sending it while we were on the phone, I think perhaps he sent the email to someone else. Such is life eh. Will call again tomorrow.

Will give consideration to "somehow" as well. The idea of installing a larger pipe through which to pull the logstor has some merit I think.

Might have to see how many guys I know that will work for beer and smokeys.

Regards,

Al