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I read the postings about pex vs copper etc and noticed one that indicated pex was used in a freeze/thaw environment. My question is… Is pex rated as a freeze/thaw friendly product and have any of you used it in this sort of application. Also .. how would it react with heat cables attached…ie would it melt. Just curious as pex may be a potential solution in some extreme cases. Thanks. Steve,
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Thanks Fred,
I agree with all you said. As a GC I,m always looking for new products and ideas to keep in mind for that head-scratcher that some customer dumps in your lap to "handle" for them. Thanks for the info. Steve,
*Hi Steve - We've got a summer cabin that needed re-plumbing last year, and I picked PEX because of it's freeze/thaw tolerance. In a sense, I'm conducting a test of those capabilities right now. I usually blow out the lines, but the two lines I ran for next year's clotheswasher installation were just capped off, and I had no way to blow them out. When spring comes, and enough snow melts for me to get in there, I'll find out how it did. Right before Christmas it got down to -50 there, so should be a good test.Scott.
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I read the postings about pex vs copper etc and noticed one that indicated pex was used in a freeze/thaw environment. My question is... Is pex rated as a freeze/thaw friendly product and have any of you used it in this sort of application. Also .. how would it react with heat cables attached...ie would it melt. Just curious as pex may be a potential solution in some extreme cases. Thanks. Steve,
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Check out Wirsbo, Vangard, Stadler, Kitec.... and other big PEX Mfg. for freeze thaw resistance ratings. I used Kitec in my own house. Literature states something like "tested to -40f". They're the PEX most likely to split I'd imagine since they're a PEX-AL-PEX configuration like Weil-Mclean's. I'd expect the other straight PEX's to handle deeper freezes since they don't have the alum. core.