Bath Floor Heating from old 1 1/2inch. cop. drain pipe[wood boiler]

[ozzie88]

Well another idea that looks like it worked . I had to take out all my copper drain lines 1 1/2 and 3inch. I did not know what to do with old pipe so thought I make in floor heat from my boiler. In photo you can see I looped it threw the one zone in my house, Have a whole $40.00 in it. The fittings I looked up for ends 90 to 3/4 would cost me $115.00 So, I got a BFH. and smashed ends then brazed them up, 3/4 cross pipe is brazed also with brass. Air check at 120 Lbs. for leaks. Brass alot better than soilder. I insulated them and seems to work great so far. I used about 19 feet of 1 1/2 inch and 9 foot of 3/4. Seems should be at least 3 gal. of hot water under floor? I also made towell racks and grab bar for bath out them.
The one photo is why I took out pipes. Other is pipes I cleand up, other is floor heating.
Just an info thing I thought some of you may find interesting?

 

[Morgan]

I'll give you a few points for creativity, and although you did pressure test it, DWV copper is not rated for pressure.......its your house though, hopefully you don't come home to a wet mess someday. Countless expansion/contraction cycles of the copper are going to weaken the brazed joints over time is my guess.

 

[woodsmaster]

The thicker copper is used for domestic water so that shouldn't be a problem unless there is a weak spot from corrosion.
If solder joints are going to fail from exp. and contraction there's a lot of people in trouble out there. I probably would have sold the copper and put in pex ,but that's just me.

 

[Morgan]

Copper has 4 classes, Type K, L, M and DWV. DWV is for drainage only. Type M copper is thicker and is used for heating systems and sometimes for residential potable water systems. Type L copper is thicker again and used for residential and commercial/industrial potable water systems. Type K is the thickest, hard drawn, I see it used in a lot of medical gas systems and soft drawn it is typically used for incoming water services. With that said, DWV copper is not rated for pressure services, plus drilling and brazing the 3/4" pipe to the 1 1/2" pipe without "pulling" a proper tee socket on the larger pipe with the correct tool is asking for failure, and just to mention, you can only "pull" a tee on type L or K pipe to begin with. Most people's hydronic heating systems have used a minimum of type M copper with proper copper fittings designed for pressure applications, so no, most people would be fine, its just this type of home brew setup that worries me.

 

[woodsmaster]

I didn't realize there was a thinner grade for drain pipe. It does sound a little risky

 

[ozzie88]

Well. got me thinking,although I did use unions to get out I must say I did some figures and came up with pex be better. Should not be hard at all to do,see under this I am adding a half bath too. Thanks, There was this one 3ft. piece that was all thin walled??
You from ohio, I was raised in Toledo,did alot hunting around Sherwood.

 

[woodsmaster]

Ya born and raised around here. I'm only a few miles from sherwood. Some nice deer around here. I often have tracks in my yard, but I've never actually seen them in my yard. I go shotgun hunting each year and would like to get a bow for next year.