Non-OB Pex on an Econoburn

[GreenMonastery]

As the heating season approaches here in interior BC we are excited about using our new Econoburn EBW-200. After reading the FAQ about the carbon-steel water jacket though, we realized it was plumbed with Wirsbo Aquapex, which has no oxygen barrier... We are wondering how big a problem this will be - if we have to dig the pex up, we had better get started now! Will the thing rust out in one season? To me, the pex has a slightly redish hue already ...

Thanks for your advice!

 

[woodsmaster]

You need to change it sometime, so the sooner the better in my opinion.

 

[WRVERMONT]

It wont rust out in one year, but with a investment like that you better change out the line to some OxyBarrier stuff. The only other thing you could do would be to isolate the Econoburn with a heat exchanger, thus keeping the oxygen laden water seperate from the boiler. If it not a long run of line, just bite the bullit and dig it up, get it done.

 

[btuser]

How much of the pex is exposed? I can't be certain but something tells me there isn't a ton of oxygen available to insulated underground piping. My house had a zone plumbed with non barrier pex. 200' above the garage. I had the choice of a heat exchanger or do some pretty major demo and I chose the demo. In the end with the cost of a bronze pump, heat exchanger and whatever I decided to rip it out and do the damage as it would give me an excuse to fix some other stuff. In the end I had about 250' of exposed non-barrier pex connected to a low-grade steel tube boiler for about 10 years and all the original pumps + valves were still working.

There's additives that will help. Oxygen scavengers.

 

[GreenMonastery]

How much of the pex is exposed?

Very little is exposed, maybe 2' or 3' in total - it is about at 25' run buried about 6' underground with 4" of Styrofoam around it. It is separate from the tank via a heat exchanger so we were told if we added a rust inhibitor that this should be adequate....?? Thoughts?

Many thanks

 

[btuser]

That's a ton of money+work to "do it right". Like I said my situation was different. You can get a test kit that will tell you if your getting in the danger zone. One thing to think about is glycol becomes acidic/corrosive due to breakdown from excessive heat as well as oxygen