For heated floors with pex pipe, is it terrible to have a fitting spliced in a zone?

[Truffles]

Hi all,

When running the pex for a long zone in my hydronic heated floors, I came up about 10 feet short of its destination. Having never installed hydronic floors, I’m curious if others would think there is a high enough potential for leaks at the fitting for me to spend the money to buy a new run of pex. The floor will be pretty sealed up once it’s in place.

Any help is appreciated,
Thanks again,

Slowpoke

[TJones]

Originally Posted by Truffles

Hi all,

When running the pex for a long zone in my hydronic heated floors, I came up about 10 feet short of its destination. Having never installed hydronic floors, I’m curious if others would think there is a high enough potential for leaks at the fitting for me to spend the money to buy a new run of pex. The floor will be pretty sealed up once it’s in place.


Any help is appreciated,
Thanks again,

Slowpoke

Best practice is to not have fittings in inaccessible places. The cost of new pex is far less than having to locate and repair a leak down the road.

Ted

[fo4imtippin]

PexA or Pex B? I would have no qualms about an PexA (expansion, Uponor, Propex etc) joint under a floor. I generally follow the no hidden splices thing and dont hide splices with PexB (crimp or cinch fittings).

[ron70]

I’m a pipefitter with many years of installing and repairing hydronic heating and cooling systems. The industry rule of thumb is NEVER bury a splice of any kind unless the material is soldered, welded, brazed, or fused and the entire system has been pressure tested at max rating for a minimum of two hours. All pipe regardless of type has a safety margin of 125% above rated service pressure so don’t be afraid to test your system at the max pressure of the lowest rated part/fitting/joint. Hydronic heating systems expand and contract during each cycle as the system calls for heat and then shuts the loop down once the thermostat is satisfied. This constant movement will eventually cause fittings to leak, which isn’t a big deal if the leak is accessible and easily repaired.

[Truffles]

Originally Posted by ron70

I’m a pipefitter with many years of installing and repairing hydronic heating and cooling systems. The industry rule of thumb is NEVER bury a splice of any kind unless the material is soldered, welded, brazed, or fused and the entire system has been pressure tested at max rating for a minimum of two hours. All pipe regardless of type has a safety margin of 125% above rated service pressure so don’t be afraid to test your system at the max pressure of the lowest rated part/fitting/joint. Hydronic heating systems expand and contract during each cycle as the system calls for heat and then shuts the loop down once the thermostat is satisfied. This constant movement will eventually cause fittings to leak, which isn’t a big deal if the leak is accessible and easily repaired.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I got a whole new roll to replace the short run with. I appreciate you.

[cadillackid]

ha! we used to run into splices in HVAC linesets inside of walls.. talk about an installer that caused us (the later service company) lots of headache in troubleshooting a freon leak.....