Pex Al PEX heated floor tubing

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Rawhide13

New Member
Jul 18, 2018
2
WI
Has anyone had experience with heated floor tubing? A friend of mine said he bought Pex al pex 1/2 Watts brand tubing for his floor and said he bought it because the store he got it from only sells to contractors so it must be good quality. I looked up the price and it's $450 a roll of 1000' which compared to other brands I'm finding for $260 per roll but not watts brand seems like a big increase. Thoughts on if brand name really makes a difference in the tubing quality? Thanks
 
PEX AL is a great product for retrofit and new construction in floor heating . Pex AL has an aluminum liner to transfer heat more efficiently than regular pex. Also it is constructed to be an oxygen barrier tubing, which is needed in a closed heating system. Regular pex is good but pex al is the better choice.
 
PEX AL is a great product for retrofit and new construction in floor heating . Pex AL has an aluminum liner to transfer heat more efficiently than regular pex. Also it is constructed to be an oxygen barrier tubing, which is needed in a closed heating system. Regular pex is good but pex al is the better choice.

But does it matter the brand? Some brands are twice as expensive . Is there really that much difference?
 
But does it matter the brand? Some brands are twice as expensive . Is there really that much difference?

I chose to install oxygen barrier heating pex and not the pex-al-pex. I couldn't see any good reason to pay more for the aluminum layer.
 
I've used thousands of feet of Pex B (not Pex Al Pex) of various brands with no issues. Not saying PAP is a bad choice though.
 
When I installed my Warmboard - pexalpex was recommended by Warmboard and I used it. My brother in law used non pexalpex. His Warmboard sounds like popcorn as it warms—— mine is dead silent. Once it’s bent - pexalpex doesn’t try to straighten which makes it stay put better. Unsure of current Warmboard recommendations- and also note the few o-ring style fittings you are supposed to use- are more expensive with the Wirsbo pexalpex. Dan