Central heating with 10mm plastic pipes

garethgas

Tucker wrote: »

You have to be kidding. Our street are Barrett built from 1991. Every single house on our street (20 houses +) has had a minimum of one leak from copper piping. Most have had multiple leaks, anything upto 6 seperate leaks. 3 or 4 seems to be the average.

I've had 3 in the bathroom and one on the run up from the boiler, which seeped down inside the wooden boxing in and went undetected till my laminate started to warp.

Personally, I would never use copper again. All the leaks have been from the copper pipe themselves, not joints. The pipes went green where the leak was and they were pin hole size leaks that took time to detect, by which point the damages was beyond salvage.

You could argue the builders used a faulty batch of copper pipe. Perhaps that's so, but I've replaced much of mine with plastic and trust that far more than I'd trust copper.

One of my neighbours has got so fed up he's looking to rip out every bit of copper and redo the whole house in plastic.

:rotfl: Barratt + Plumber + water leak = faulty copper!
Priceless!

mikey72

I've replaced loads of copper in the last few years that has pin holed from the inside. Rising mains, cold water feed to the cylinder, hot water, radiator pipes, the lot. Both 22mm and 15mm The only thing in common is the copper from the 60's. It doesn't appear to last forever nowadays.

gasmanmartin

Tucker you will probably find there is nothing wrong with the copper, but it will be magnetite/corrosion eating its way out.

There is nothing wrong with using either material for heating systems as long as the system is commissioned (flushed out) correctly and the inhibitor levels are checked annually

heating-eng

I have installed many hundreds of heating systems over the years and have fitted many on copper and many on plastic, I like plastic best if it is under the floor or not on show. My house is all done in plastic , as somebody has already said 10mm plastic is fine for the smaller rads but the bigger rads needs to be 15mm, the tails that come out of the floor would be better in copper.
Also plastic is better if you ever need to take any rads off.

heating-eng

Copper is very thin nowadays as well ,not like the old copper we take out.
I would say the plastic will last longer than the copper

Leif

How long should in screed pipes last, be they copper or plastic? I get the impression they all need redoing after 20 years, with the associated cost whatever it is. I had quotes for pipes chased into walls, and pipes chased into screed. I chose the latter. It seems to me that walls are not a good place for pipes. They are easily pierced by nails, and replacing them causes more costly damage than digging up a floor trench.

An ex-colleague (he left last week) installed his own central heating pipes using plastic and push fit connectors.

Leif

I forgot to add, older copper pipes will not have an insulation from the screed, and hence they will corrode. My plumber has dug trenches into the screed and in places I can see the old pipes, below the damp proof membrane, and they are bare. To my untrained eye they look to have suffered severe corrosion. Perhaps that is why the previous owner cut them off and installed pipes above ground.

Tucker

gasmanmartin wrote: »

Tucker you will probably find there is nothing wrong with the copper, but it will be magnetite/corrosion eating its way out.

There is nothing wrong with using either material for heating systems as long as the system is commissioned (flushed out) correctly and the inhibitor levels are checked annually

Only one of the copper pipes that has gone on the estate has been central heating pipe (mine!) as the houses were not built with them, they had gas fed heaters.

All the other pipes that have failed have been hot and cold water supply to the bathroom from the original build.

PS I flush mine regular with sentinal x300 or whatever it is and inhibitor is always added after.

heating-eng

eeaatall wrote: »

I have to admit i have always disliked plastic piping on a heating circuit.

Why ?
I use it as much as possible.

heating-eng

Tucker wrote: »

Only one of the copper pipes that has gone on the estate has been central heating pipe (mine!) as the houses were not built with them, they had gas fed heaters.

All the other pipes that have failed have been hot and cold water supply to the bathroom from the original build.

PS I flush mine regular with sentinal x300 or whatever it is and inhibitor is always added after.

If you are having to flush it often then there is a problem with the system that needs looking at.
A good system should only be flushed when needed ( maybe every 10/15 years )