[Cob] pipes

[Shannon C. Dealy]

> From: "karl and tabitha o'melay" <karl at omelay.com>
> To: <coblist at deatech.com>
> Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 9:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [Cob] pipes
>
>
> > i second that... pex is great, easy to work with and anyone with limited
> > mechanical skills can install it. if you kink it  you can heat it with a
> > heat gun & it'll memory-shape to origional. yes, pex is also for radiant
> > heating. PVC is evil--i would never consider it for my water supply.
> >
> > see http://www.nextwavefilms.com/bluevinyl/sundance.html regarding PVC
> >
> > karl
[snip]

There is no panacea in piping, pex has at least some history of recalls,
lawsuits, and catastrophic failures, particularly when used to transport
hot water.  It's use in plumbing is relatively recent, and we don't know
what the ultimate long term issues might be (my brother was one of the
unlucky ones who used it in the house he built in the early/mid 1990's).
It is generally a good idea to assume the worst when using a new material
for a long term application, because accelerated material life testing
does not have the greatest track record.  My personal approach is avoid
routing water anywhere you don't have to (imagine the work involved in
replacing failed hydronic piping in a cob floor, or even worse, a cement
one), and make provisions to minimize the damage elsewhere (drainage
and/or routing through areas where the damage will be minimal).

FWIW.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
                      |    Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers
Phone: (800) 467-5820 | Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications
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