Plastic piping for central heating

[Stanios]

Only benefit of plastic is how incredibly faster it is to do just about any installation with it.
If I was working on my own house though where time isnt really a constraint so I would always only use copper. Its just more durable. Customer's house 10 years down the line isnt your problem, your own house will be.

 

[Worcester]

Only benefit of plastic is how incredibly faster it is to do just about any installation with it.

Other "benefit" to a self-builder / diyer is the lack of technical jointing aka soldering skills needed.

 

[JCSPLUMBING]

It's so much quicker on installations. I hate to admit I use it all the time on heating installs. I use coils rather than lengths mainly. anything on show is of course copper. Airing cupboards/rad tails etc. I done a heating install the other week. 7 rads on. Combi. No previous heating at all. My mate fitted the boiler and I done all the rest. I had all rads hung by 12. All first fix pipe done by 5. Next day I piped up the rads with couple of drops downstairs in copper. Took me longer to do those drops than the whole first fix. Crazy

 

[AWheating]

Plastic is quicker on new builds with access to underside of floor/ joists. when retro fitting its can be as time consuming as copper i think, mainly because you need to lift boards every 300-500mm or so to battern and/or clip where as copper needs less supports so can be fished further.

 

[plumb_know]

Find plastic sags when hot even when clipped correctly wouldn't want to use it on open vented system at risk of air locks. But have started to use hep2o more as does have benefits and these are only plastic fittings I have confidence in at the moment.

 

[Worcester]

.. have started to use hep2o more as does have benefits and these are only plastic fittings I have confidence in at the moment.

That's why we use polysure; fittings not cheap, however they are secure

 

[Staffy85]

personally i find the expansion of your regular plastic/barrier pipe to be to much! everything has its pros and cons but i do think there are a lot of people abusing plastic pipes by not clipping and not using it to its full benefit of its length over copper by using manifolds to minimize fittings in walls, under floors and generally places that cant be accessed, obviously more pipe will be used but IMO its worth it ,

Iv been using the new TEC mlcp for awhile now , i like it , doesnt expand like your plastic and behaves more like annealed copper , not keen on the bend radius but with its 3 piece liner it makes the joint double sealed as to what it would normally be , coupled that with the 316 stainless fittings and you have a very good joint! expensive but good!!

 

[jtsplumbing]

personally i find the expansion of your regular plastic/barrier pipe to be to much! everything has its pros and cons but i do think there are a lot of people abusing plastic pipes by not clipping and not using it to its full benefit of its length over copper by using manifolds to minimize fittings in walls, under floors and generally places that cant be accessed, obviously more pipe will be used but IMO its worth it ,

Iv been using the new TEC mlcp for awhile now , i like it , doesnt expand like your plastic and behaves more like annealed copper , not keen on the bend radius but with its 3 piece liner it makes the joint double sealed as to what it would normally be , coupled that with the 316 stainless fittings and you have a very good joint! expensive but good!!

Are you bending it using a pipe bender ? find it bends as good as copper, like it that you can pipe right up to the boiler and the white pipe looks good where its visible, and the customer doesn't cover it in paint !

 

[Worcester]

We use mlcp (from emmeti) in our underfloor heating, goes down a treat (PE-RT/AL/PE-RT Alpert MLCP UFH Pipe – 16 x 2mm)

 

[Staffy85]

Are you bending it using a pipe bender ? find it bends as good as copper, like it that you can pipe right up to the boiler and the white pipe looks good where its visible, and the customer doesn't cover it in paint !

just by hand , i thought that you couldnt do it with benders? just my opinion but you know when you use benders on copper it fixes the copper and then pulls/stretch's it around a radius , i didnt think this was suitable for it being pex/al/pex & plus tectite make bending springs for it which is another reason otherwise it does state that bend radius is the same as a bender 4xO.D {think thats the same?} but tectite bending springs should be used but ill give it a go on a scrap piece and see what its like, but yea its good, only downside i think is the bore size and the liners seem abit restrictive ? but otherwise its joints with liners are almost fool proof