Hep2o - does it stand the test of time???

[markfxy]

Hep themselves, & I think all other manufacturers of plastic pipes & fittings say not suitable where there's rodents. That's every house IMO. I haven't seen rodent damage on plastic myself, but heard of it happening. Fittings blowing off or weeping is very common.
If a heating system overheats then the plastic goes to tissue paper. Copper for heating every day. ( plastic underfloor heating working at low temps is a different thing )

more nonsense

 

[Best]

more nonsense

Not nonsense, lol! I have samples of Hep pipe that prove what happens it when it meets very hot water.
As to rodent damage, it is well known what can happen, however unlikely it may be.
A heating engineer friend had to change an oil boiler that had drained of water. He was puzzled why the plastic pipes had little holes over them.....

 

[AWheating]

rodent damage should be a concern and taken into account if the property suffers from rodent problems. As reguard heat damage, any plastic pipe will get damaged by long exposure to very high temps but most plastic can take fault temps for very short periods.

as reguards silly grease, i use spit

 

[Koogatubac]

No votes on speedfit here? Quite suprising... In north east theres alot of demand with speedfit. Used polyplumb before, is it the cheapest plastic aswell do you know?
Im not a fan of plastic, but seems like the only way to win jobs nowadays just like it when you get a job like replace a gas pipe because its all copper

 

[stevetheplumber]

usual drivel about plastic on here new builds have been plastic for the last 15 years yes its not as good as copper but then its probably half the price both on matierials and instal costs
its the customers choice
i never have any problem with rodents but i always nail the cat under the boards

 

[WHPES]

I would never recommend plastic in houses that are known to have rodents on a regular basis.

Plastic is always useful in stud walls and kitchens, and in areas where copper would be difficult to install, however copper would always be my first choice.

One property I did repairs on had a mouse chew through plastic pipework in the loft when the owners were away for the weekend. The water caused approximately £8,000 worth of damage not to mention the disruption.

 

[andywatson]

I am currently fitting out a narrowboat and the domestic water and a good bit of the CH system are hep2o.
One problem I have discovered with the new stuff is that the release tool needs about 15mm clearance along the pipe to get it on which is a nuisance on a fitting which occaisionally needs demounting but due to the proximity of the next fitting this doesn't occur.
I am facing this problem where a pipe enters the calorifier at an elbow. I am therefore intending to sacrifice the hep20 .

I intend to drain the system, then cut away the outer skin of the hep2o, then release the grabring with pliers or whatever fits so I can get it off without damaging the brass calorifier entry fitting. I will then use a speedfit or old splittable fitting here
.

Does this make sense to you chaps.?

Apologies if this has been mentioned before but I'm new on here.

 

[WHPES]

You should be using copper in the vicinity of the calorifier and not plastic straight onto it.

Personally I prefer PolyPlumb as it is a lot easier to work with.

 

[tooltarticus]

We done a site that needed 28mm run in hep in i beams about 12 years ago & found it tough pushing the fittings on, nipped out to the groundworkers, borrowed thier grease, pushed it together easy.....6-8 weeks later every one of those joints went one after another ,house after house....luckly they were all sealed systems so not to much water damage, but plenty of floors up....
We had been on hep nights but no-one had ever mentioned this...then there spray appeared...

the horrible gack that groundworkers use to put u/ground drainage together is oil based, no wonder you had drama ...smells like old chip fat! I've used flowplast and plumbcenter silicone greases and sprays on hep fitting for years and never had that issue!

 

[tooltarticus]

oh and re: new gen hep...loathe it. I remind them of this whenever I catch a hapless rep (but yes I will take the pens,the t shirt, the release keys and anything else he doesn't have nailed down thank you) or see them post on facebook

 

[clarky101]

the horrible gack that groundworkers use to put u/ground drainage together is oil based, no wonder you had drama ...smells like old chip fat! I've used flowplast and plumbcenter silicone greases and sprays on hep fitting for years and never had that issue!

This was about 10-12 years back & if that type of grease (sprays,silicone) weren't about or no one told us about them when we went on hep nights with the merchants....easy in hindsight...only had that problem with the stuff and that was our fault...

 

[kay-jay]

No one can give you any idea of service life as it hasn't been around long enough. Copper has been here for generations and lasts a very long time.

how long in your opinion should it have been around to stand the test of time?? JG have been producing plastics since 1961, much of it in industrial applications.

 

[andywatson]

You should be using copper in the vicinity of the calorifier and not plastic straight onto it.
QUOTE]

I have used copper to and from the CH boiler (kabola diesel fired). This runs at about 70C as I use it , and it has an overboil protection set at 90C.
The pressure in the system is only about 2/3 psi max (5 ft head to tank) so I thought this would be within the spec of the pipe.
The calorifier is about 1m by pipe away from the boiler.
It is quite common like this on narrowboats.

 

[Ray Stafford]

how long in your opinion should it have been around to stand the test of time?? JG have been producing plastics since 1961, much of it in industrial applications.

It always amuses me that plumbers who moan about "this new Speedfit stuff" in the pub are probably drinking beer that was drawn through JG pipes and driving a van whose fuel feed system contains JG connectors.

 

[Mike Jackson]

I think the fuel system on my Land Rover is probably piped in lead.