Heatway Onyx advice, leaky connections at barbed manifold

GW

I've been a Viega guy all these years; I have no experience with Onyx stuff.

We did a boiler swap recently; there was some radiant installed many years ago by another contractor. the original installer who put the radiant together did not have any valves on the circuits, at all. This manifold uses the clamp method, the ones where you just use simple pliers. (by the way, what did the original installer do, pinch off the lines as he purged???)

So, we cut in some ball valves. My install guy, who has used Onyx in the past, had a few feet of Onyx, so we have like 4" pieces of 3/8 before the ball valves. The trouble seems to be we didn't get new clamps (just new clamps for the new ball valves), we re-used the old clamps where we attaches the new 4" pieces to the old manifold.

out of 15 circuits, one leaked. we popped on a new clamp, problem solved. Now another one started to leak. Is that the rule with this stuff, new clamps needed?

My guy also said he used some sort of grease on the manifold connections, in my mind i don't see this being a plus, but again, he has Onyx experience, i don't.

Thanks for any tips. Gary

hot_rod

Is it black or orange colored tube? There were different clamps for different versions. Sounds like you have the spring type that can put out an eye

Harvey Ramer

Might look like poop, but hose clamps would solve the problem.

GW

this is what I'm using, same as the original, yet the originals are black. The tubes are black, like radiator hose. Thanks

Harvey Ramer

I meant the screw type hose clamps.

hot_rod

It use to be those barbed connectors had a slight taper, the more you jam the tube on the tighter the fit. They usually hold low pressure even without the clamps.

Make sure they pushed the hose up the barb, they probably did if they added a grease

Here is the other clamp Watts offers, theses had a spring washer to keep constant tension also, a bit $$.

The clamps you have should be plenty.

GW

yes funny enough HR, we did one boiler job a while back, NO clamps at all on the (same basic) manifold set up. We pulled the tubes, cut the ends off, added clamps, all set. I can't believe the stuff I am seeing out there