Bubbled pex - DF

Dan Foley

In my 15+ years of installing pex in radiant systems, I have never run across this - until now. The GC called to say one of our loops had bubbled. Luckily, he caught it before the dry-pack stone mud base went down. He claims it "just happened".

I am not so sure it "just happened". The tubing was under 100PSI air pressure and, unbelievably, it held pressure even when bubbled. There was a lot of steel on this project and I believe a welder dropped a red ant on the tubing causing it to bubble. Pure speculation but I have nothing else to go on. Any thoughts? -DF

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The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

Get a magnet....

and see if you can find the ant.

Boilerpro

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Tony_23

Bubble

That's a defect caused by outside forces. JMO.

bb_10

send it

to the manufacture and let them determine the cause. I think if it was bad pipe there would be more problems.

No way is it by 100 psi air pressure.

At least it was caught before and can be addressed.

bb

Paul Pollets

Dan...

Dan, send the piece back to the Uponor lab, after talking to your rep. They will certify the cause. You'll need the batch # for the tubing. I had a similar case 14 years ago when a customer accused Wirsbo of making defective tubing, which had leaked after his son stabbed the tubing over 40 times when it was on hydraulic test, before the pour. This happened the day after OJ was found not guilty. No bloody glove...

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Mike C._4

Do your own test

That tubing got hit with weld splatter. Take a piece of the tubing and hit it with a heated piece of wire/solder. I'll bet it will look just like the floor tube. Show that to the GC.

Mike

steve_29

Just curious... I haven't done any radiant jobs, but in the last photo, I see you used 2 metal 1 hole clips.

Could the metal cut a hole in the tubing from expanding and contracting over time ?

Mark Custis

Those are

EMT clips and I have used them in overpours. They are not that tight, but will hold the pex down in the turns.

I want an air stapler like that.

[Deleted User]

Slag

That totally looks like hot welding slag, We see the same thing happen on rubber roofs when welding. They should be covering your work with fire blankets when welding over head. I was on a project once where a roof caught fire from welding cost 250,000 to repair!

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hot_rod

same bubble

when you get a torch too close to air pressurized pex. The slag that may have caused that should be nearby, and a burn mark on the tube? Also other spatter trails.

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