In article , Harold and Susan Vordos
wrote:

"Vinny" wrote in message
...



Regards the piping-------I know I'll sound like an idiot, but I don't
have a
lot of faith in the plastic stuff. We used rubber hose, a product made
by
Goodyear to Heatway's specifications for the purpose of hydronic
heating.
I figure it will tolerate a little misalignment, but at this point
that's a
non-issue. I'm sure the plastic would have worked equally as well, and
it's
one hell of a lot cheaper to buy. We paid roughly 70¢/ft. for the 3/8"
rubber hose. While we didn't pay for a trace, they make the same
product
with a trace so it can be detected easily. I felt no need because it's
placed deep enough.

Harold




Sorry to tell you this but Goodyear made some very bad hose in the
early 1990's, there E2 series. it caused Heatway to go bankrupt,
ruined 1,000's of heating systems. I had installed a few of them and
they failed. It was a disaster for the industry (and me) . There is
now a $ 200+ million class action settlement underway. Heatway was
bought by Watts, and now makes a very good all EPDM hose called Onix.

Which explains why the hose that was provided was the next generation of
hose, far different from that which was in their original catalog. The
hose we got is Onix (matches the description in the catalog we have now),
and it isn't plastic. Our system has been active for 5 years and has
functioned flawlessly. Hoses that are exposed are still in great
condition.

Could you describe some of the problems the old hose yielded? Anything in
particular I should keep watch for?

Harold



If you have Onix (Black) Hose you are fine. Never been a problem with
it. same goes for Entran 3 (color orange) . The problem is that
goodyear did not use EPDM for the E2 (entran 2) hose but SBR which just
can't hold up to hot water. , the bad Hose was orange. but turned dark
red as it bcame brittle. It got so brittle it would crack plus it had
no Oxygen barrier which means the Boiler would rust out from the
inside. As far as I know there are no 'problem' radiant products on the
market now. The trace wire that was used in the early hose's did not
work out well in the real world due to rebar, wire mesh and buried
electrical wires causing false readings on the detector sets.

FYI plastic radiant tubes called 'PEX' are fantastic when it comes to
durability and ability to withstand slab cracking . As long as the
crack happens over time the PEX just expands. During the San Franscisco
earthquake to 1990? the slab cracking happened too fast for the PEX to
expand so much of it failed but the Heatway hose's did fine. PEX is
destroyed by direct sunlight !

Hose type radiant systems are great for commercial jobs where there are
lots of tradesman walking on the tubes. it is also kink proof which is
good for 'rookie' installers but by far its best use is staple-up
underfloor retrofit's under title, wood or carpet floors. it does not
expand and contract like PEX.