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Defective Tubing?

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joe amadio
joe amadio Member Posts: 41
in THE MAIN WALL
Just came from a job where the customer has been out of town for a weak. While they were away a section of heat pex tubing burst and flooded the basement. The tubing was made by Slant Fin. It was running off a tee on a manifold loop hot water system up to a sunrad radiator on the floor above. The pipe looked like it was melted. It was split open 2 inches long and the pipe walls where peeled back. It looked like a fire cracker went off inside of it. Has any one seen anything like this before? I checked the boiler temp and pressure. Also made sure the relief valve was working. Any thoughts? 

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  • Al Letellier_21
    Al Letellier_21 Member Posts: 402
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    defective tubing

    I have not seen it with that brand, but have with several others. I've had at least 4 insurance investigations this year with burst PEX tubing. Hard to tell what happened but temperature and pressure sure do play a part in these kinds of failures. Have sent several samples back to the manufacturers for testing and always get the same answer.....too much heat or pressure. Certainly could be a defect in the tubing....it happens. Save the bad piece for the insurance people.
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,853
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    Doubtful...

    In my 36 years of doing this, if there is a tubing failure (Except Entran 2) there is usually a human being at the root cause.



    I've seen tubing installed over can lights, that got hot and caused tubing failure.



    I've personally blown tubing under pressure up trying to smooth out a kink in the tubing (BOOOOOoooommmm)



    But have never witnessed a random tubing failure. PEX is some pretty tough stuff.



    Got pictures?



    ME

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • Plumdog_2
    Plumdog_2 Member Posts: 873
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    melted pex

    I've seen it happen a couple of times....both unoccupied homes. One was a vacation home that the Electric utility shut off power because the bill went unpaid (a long and sad story but not relevant). Without power everything froze solid and many copper waterlines burst, among them the boiler feed. When power was restored, the boiler fired right up...but without anybody home to find all the leaks. Long story short the boiler flashed to steam and the pex melted and blew out much like you describe. Another case the boiler "ran away" while the pump failed and the expansion tank was waterlogged with the same results, blown out pex from steam. I would check that the controls are working reliably, it could have been overheating. A lot of equipment out there has only an operating aquastat and no high limit, and no LWCO. Could get ugly.
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