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[boilerman]

One thing I've noticed on various delivery systems is that when you have a wet fall going in to freeze up, you are more prone to seeing snowmelt as the extra ground moisture is a great conductor of any heat coming off the shell of the delviery system. During a dry fall leading into freeze up, you see much less. If you get water in your delivery system you are toast and will experience huge ground heat loss. This Fall we were bone dry and with just 6 inches of dirt over my foam style Thermopex and there is no sign of snowmelt whatsoever right now............just snow.

[loneryder]

Melting the snow is the signs of an obvious problem.....  Willie has shown some calculations on here before that will baffle you at how much heat you could be losing.  I've got just your basic 3 wrap on mine, it's about 18-24" deep and I see no snow melt

What is 3 wrap??  I have the CB pex about 18-24 inches deep and have never seen any melting.

[johnybcold]

Boilerman I like you comment  it makes sense

[Scott7m]

Melting the snow is the signs of an obvious problem.....  Willie has shown some calculations on here before that will baffle you at how much heat you could be losing.  I've got just your basic 3 wrap on mine, it's about 18-24" deep and I see no snow melt

What is 3 wrap??  I have the CB pex about 18-24 inches deep and have never seen any melting.

It's just your standard insulated pipe, has 3 wraps of low e insulation surrounding your pex lines, it's what most folks buy

[netwerx-r-us]

I'm looking at your picture and I'm not seeing your snow melt ? , anyway Willie is right on the money , find out what your temps are at the various locations  and seeing if you are indeed loosing heat  , several ways to do this, boilerman makes good points , your snow melt may not be due to lines loosing heat , I understand it usually is and can be but before you make a  several thousand decision have the facts in hand , not an educated guess

[yotehunter66]

It was in the high 20's here today and this is what my lines are doing.




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[Scott7m]

In my opinion your def loosing to much heat, what line did u use?


Boiler man is correct about that, the moisture content of the soil, that's why I always say don't go down into the muck because wetter soil wicks heat much faster than dry

[yotehunter66]

The boiler was already installed when we bought the house last spring. It looks like pex with a couple of layers of foil wrap inside the lack pipe.

[Scott7m]

The boiler was already installed when we bought the house last spring. It looks like pex with a couple of layers of foil wrap inside the lack pipe.

I suspect it's probably either a home made pex package or a cheap made product.

Also not crazy about how it comes out of the ground so much, not because of heat loss but uv degradation will eventually cause it to crack, especially if a weed eater hits it... 

Might be something to look at upgrading

[willieG]

The boiler was already installed when we bought the house last spring. It looks like pex with a couple of layers of foil wrap inside the lack pipe.

I suspect it's probably either a home made pex package or a cheap made product.

Also not crazy about how it comes out of the ground so much, not because of heat loss but uv degradation will eventually cause it to crack, especially if a weed eater hits it... 
if the pex exits teh ground are the ends covered so no water from a rain could enter it? if water gets in from above ground it probably is not getting out anywhere and thsu could be causing the ground melt now?

Might be something to look at upgrading

[yotehunter66]

Will the better grade make a tighter bend? This stuff doesn't look to flexible. I suspect that's why they have so much of it out of the ground it runs about a foot or so onto the house before the black pipe stops.

[Scott7m]

Will the better grade make a tighter bend? This stuff doesn't look to flexible. I suspect that's why they have so much of it out of the ground it runs about a foot or so onto the house before the black pipe stops.

Why is it ran through the wall??  I'm not understanding why it was done this way...

When I saw it installed like that I thought to myself it shouldn't have been done that way, sometimes you have to come out, but I can't see why yours was.  Kinda makes me think it may have been a self install with home made line

Flexible?  Heck no, it's all stiff as a poker!

If your considering fixing the line, you may want to fix the exposed part as well, I feel you'll be rewarded well for your efforts.

[yotehunter66]

Probably because it was easier to core through the rim board of the house than poured wall. I'll look into it this spring after I shut her down. Thanks for all the advice.

[Scott7m]

Well if you don't want to go through the poured wall, dig the ditch deeper by the house a bit, and then use metal stealing and tap cons to pull it in tight against the house, then you could easily make a box to protect it

[johnybcold]

Drilling a hole through is not that bad, I rented the drill and the bit from homedepot