more bad kitec

Brian

Where's the job located and what sort of water conditions do they have there?

Dobber

rich pickering

split kitec

Took this out of a crawl space friday night.Dark spot on aluminum is a hole. Note bumps on pipe and discolotation.

3/4" dhw about 140 degrees with recirc. We still have to show it to kitec.

rich pickering

something else

I just noticed this. Now that the pipe is at room temp, the inner layer has shrunk. Both ends look the same.

Chuck Waters

Rich,

Give me a call. We will be happy to help you out. Our direct line is 1-800-473-9808

Thanks

bill clinton_3

kitec problem

Hmmm. Inner liner has no oxygen barrier. Chlorinated hot water being circulated. Chlorine a potent oxidizer. Chlorine meets aluminum. Pretty predictable result.

The big difference between US water systems and European water systems where pex plumbing was developed is the use of chlorine in US systems. Belatedly producers of pex have been trying to address the chlorine issue. About all they can do is adjust the anti-oxidant package: Which helps: but I am not persuaded they can make it good enough to withstand the constant exposure of a recirc line.

When you get to Pex-Al-Pex, the issue gets dicier. The pex layer interior to the aluminum layer is quite thin. Not much room to pack in a large anti-oxidant package. Therefore, I expect pex-al-pex will fail rather quickly in a chlorinated hot water recic line and I don't think there's much the manufacturer can do about it.

Bill

Chuck Waters

Kitec carries the NSF P171 CL/R continuous recirculation rating, the most stringent chlorine rating in the industry.

Guy_6

split

Please forgive my limited knowledge on plastic tubing in general, but that type of failure would yell pressure to me: What type of expansion protection is on the system? I would think that a hotel would have rush HW times, then recovery time. A large HW maker with a high recovery demand and capability and limited expansion room would explain such a mess.

JMHO

GW

rich pickering

not expansion

Guy, this is a dhw, with no backflow, system is open to city mains.

rich pickering

update

Daryle from kitec was here today. Also talked to Chuck on the phone. Gotta tell you, I could not be happier with the response so far. I wish all reps were like this.

Sample is on its way to the factory. There were no attempts to place blame anywhere, just a sincere desire to find out why.

And yes, we still stock kitec.