The majority of American oil-fired boilers, and many gas-fired ones as well, use the single-pass heat exchanger type, whereas,  European boilers like Buderus, use a triple-pass heat exchanger. What this means is an American oil-fired single-pass boiler may have a 400-500 degree stack temperature (temperature of the flue gas going up the chimney), while a Buderus triple-pass design will have between 250 and 350 degrees going up into the atmosphere. That’s approximately 30% less heat going up the chimney and instead going into the space heating water.

What you don’t have as much of going up the chimney with European designs is C02 and a lot of other “nasties”. American-made boilers of the oil variety spew a lot more greenhouse gasses and S02 (the key ingredient in acid rain) into the atmosphere.

Interestingly enough, you don’t see many American fuel oil companies selling efficient European boilers, because that would reduce the amount of oil they would sell to their customers. I’ve often wondered if there is a further ‘cozy’ relationship between the fuel oil industry and American boiler manufacturers. American fuel oil consumers, you gotta wake up! In my opinion (from someone who started his career as an oil burner technician for fuel companies in the early 80s) you should never hire your fuel company to install your heating equipment, or service it either. That’s the same as letting the fox guard the hen house. Certainly, there are some ethical fuel dealers who do offer high-efficiency equipment and who employ decent technicians and sales staff.

The worst American oil-fired boiler types are the kind that utilize a “tankless coil” to heat domestic hot water. These boilers are so in-efficient that they have been banned in some states, like New York, unless it can be shown that the appliance has “an acceptable standby loss”. In my opinion, there is no acceptable standby loss with a boiler that heats potable hot water with a tankless coil, as the boiler must maintain temperature 24/7/365, and much of the heat generated goes right up the chimney. Of course, a stack damper would help, but not eliminate that heat loss up the chimney, not to the room the boiler is installed in.

Here is a video of a Burnham V73 boiler with a tankless coil – this equipment really eats up the fuel!

The better way to heat potable hot water is with a triple-pass boiler design like the Buderus G-series, and an indirect-fired water heater like a Triangle Tube Smart series. But then your fuel company will hate you if you switch from the American Oil Eaters they love to sell to their customers.

The only American boilers I buy are steam boilers, because the Europeans don’t heat with steam, they heat with predominantly forced hot water, because they know better than to heat with the least efficient of all heating technologies – steam and, therefore, don’t make steam boilers as a rule.

If you don’t see information about that aspect of HVAC that you seek, then simply send me a note an tell me what you would like to know. If I don’t have your answers directly, I bet I can find them out.

Please comment on the Blog posts that you read, even to say you disagree.

Thanks,

John Rocheleau

In the fall of 2010 I was set to rebuild a Sunbeam coal-fired gravity hot air furnace that was installed in 1889, and converted to oil in 1959. Set that is until the 80-year old owner saw the dirt, dust and debris that had accumulated in the single wooden return trunk. Rather than have me clean the trunk, reseal the cast iron sections, replace the oil burner and combustion chamber, primary control, fuel filter, smoke-pipe and draft regulator, she told me to replace the entire furnace with a forced hot air model. While I was looking forward to bringing this otherwise perfectly sound furnace back to top performance and safety, I considered the other positive: I would make much more money on the sale of a new furnace altogether – the thing that motivates most in business to replace the old with the new.

Here’s the old system:

[Show as slideshow]

I know the old Sunbeam and ducts look like they are, well, old. But I assure you, this system was a solid as it was the day it was installed in the late 1800s. A little duct cleaning and some paint and this could have looked new again, and worked like a charm.

Here’s the new system:

[Show as slideshow]

While I think the Thermo-Pride furnace that I installed is the best oil-fired furnace on the market today, the same can’t be said for the new duct and fittings, which repeatedly broke during installation. That’s right, the new duct and fittings were such poor quality I was embarrassed to install them. Were they made in China? I don’t know because there was no name on the product, only a bar code. Not only that, when I returned the unused and broken elbows to the supply house (Air Purchases, Inc – API – Manchester, NH) I was met with the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced in the trade. After having an account with this company since 1988, I closed it when I got no better treatment from the owner of the company when I complained about the awful treatment the day (6 months later) he called me.

But this post is not about one company, nor one product. No, this post is about what is happening in the HVACR industry as a whole. Since I started in the trade (1980) there has been a major paradigm shift with manufacturing of HVACR equipment and materials. This shift can be analogized by the old Sunbeam furnace/soldered tin ducts, that lasted well over a hundred years, with that of new equipment and materials that are made to fail so “the consumer” will have to buy more products – that also don’t last – and the vicious cycle perpetuates.

This new era of excessive consumerism is designed to do one thing: make a few people very rich, at the expense of the often very ignorant consumer and/or tradesman.

I know what some of you are saying, “but that’s what keeps the economy going!” Yes, following WWII our leaders, both government and corporate, decided that continuance of the white hot economy that the war created was something that needed to be continued, so consumerism was created to do just that. My friends, consumerism has taken an ugly turn for the worse.

It’s not bad enough that we are destroying our natural world through excessive human population, therefore, consumption, but now manufacturers are going to Third World countries with the absolute worst environmental and human rights records for cheap (often poisonous) products that don’t last, at the expense of American manufacturing workers, tradesmen and consumers.

Here is a short list of the worst products on the market for HVACR.

1. Imported Valves and Fittings
2. Imported Grilles, Registers and Diffusers
3. Imported Sheet Metal – Pipe & Fittings
4. Imported “High-Efficient” Cast Aluminum and Stainless Steel Boilers and Furnaces
5. Imported Electronic Controls
6. PEX Tubing
7. Press-Type Copper Fittings and Valves
8. Pre-made Copper and Steel Manifolds
9. Anything that is advertised as “Save Time and Money”
10. Many More Than Time Permits Mentioning

Here’s a product that oughta turn heads, like the day it did when it exploded and almost took off a worker’s head, in Exeter, NH. This valve is made in China and is akin to the majority of valves on the market and bought and installed continually by tradesmen who think they are either getting, or giving a deal, presumably, to their customers. This valve is a private label for the largest supply house chain in the Northeast, F.W. Webb, a company that seems more interested in how many skew numbers move through the cash register each business day, than the quality of the products they supply to tradesmen to install, and the proof of this is the low quality private label products they sell under the names PVF Limited and Pure Pro:

[Show as slideshow]

With each passing year I see more cheap Third World products on the shelves of supply  house like Webb and API. It doesn’t matter that I complain that their fittings are high in lead or Zinc, or they fail almost immediately at times. Nope, my complaints and concerns fall on deaf ears, as the boys at the top of these companies are well aware of what I call the Wal-Mart Syndrome – a race-to-the-bottom-of-price. But it’s not the lowest price these financial wizards are so concerned with; it’s obviously profits,no matter the quality. This is the common business MO throughout our suffering capitalist system. As a tradesman of 30-plus years, the thing that distresses me the most is the crap wholesalers peddle to me with few, if any, alternatives. How am I to produce great work with crappy products? (I invent and develop my own products, actually. And they’re all made in America by hard-working, quality-minded craftsmen.)

These guys all know that everybody expects a deal. What they don’t know –  and how would they, they’re not craftsman – is that low price does not necessarily equal value. Low price, in my book, means somebody (or the environment) is paying a hefty price.

So who’s getting the s**t end of the stick?

When tradesmen buy the cheapest parts they can find they are ripping off the consumer or themselves. How? When tradesmen buy a part and mark up the sale of the part to his customer, this is expected and without a mark-up, no business will stay in business for long. This is ordinarily honest business exchange of goods and services – all costs should be considered for mark-up.

Say a tradesman buys a part for $100 and multiplies it by 2 and sells the part for $200. Now what if he gets “a deal” on a cheap import and pays $50 for it. He can either sell it for the same $200 price as the quality made part (gouging the customer), or he can apply the same multiplier (2) and sell it for $100 (he takes profit opportunity from himself – he only made $50). Who got the worst deal with the sale of the cheap Chinese part in this example, the tradesman or the end-user? The tradesman lost out on a much greater mark-up, for a quality part, which keeps him in the game, and his customer was sold a crappy part that won’t last and he’ll soon be in the market again for the same part. Both lose equally, in a strict economic sense.

Then who makes out in this cheap-imports ponzi scheme? The supplier, because his margins are far greater on cheap imports than on high quality, and relatively expensive, domestically made products. This is what The Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowes and all the other so-called big box stores have figured out. They also know that the best place to get cheap products is in the developing Third World, as no smart American manufacturer can possibly compete with workers who earn $15 a month and live in thatched roof huts, or chicken coop style low class worker dormitories. High quality parts don’t move as well when a cheap alternative is on the shelf next to it.

Another way tradesmen shoot themselves in the foot is with products that are purported to “save them installation time”.  Take PEX tubing for example: installation of PEX is usually very quick, quicker than copper piping, but the cost is often virtually the same, even more money per foot. But the time to install it is much less. The key word is “less”. Less time means less money the tradesman makes. Afterall, aren’t we in the business of selling our labor, too?

So when tradesmen give up the time it takes to pipe a system in copper by using products such as PEX tubing, pre-made copper or steel manifolds, press-type copper systems, etc., so they can “save time”, they are giving away their profit-making opportunity to the manufacturer of the so-called time-saving products. Meanwhile, they are still selling the job to the customer for about the same amount of money, given PEX and related fittings are generally more expensive than copper. Throw in the cheap valves and other fittings with stickers on them that say Thailand, or Malaysia, or China, and what tradesmen are doing is installing a system that not only looks like crap, is devoid of true craftsmanship and won’t last very long. They are giving their customer low value. But manufacturers love them for it!

The other big scam on the buying public and tradesmen is high-efficiency boilers, furnaces and water heaters. In the next post I will reveal why this is the greatest scam ever pulled on building owners by the industry, and why they are not actually reducing anyone’s carbon footprint like they are purported to do. What’s worse, from a tradesman’s perspective is the messenger is often the one who is shot, for an offense he didn’t commit.

Stay tuned.

Since the paradigm shift called the Internet, I spend a lot of time enumerating the ways of promoting my HVACR business – those that work and those on their way out. Once upon an easier time, all you really had to do was buy yellow page advertising and sales seemed to just happen. Today, that advertising method may not even pay for itself. Whether one tweets their way to sales, broadcasts it across their vehicles, or is a Flat Rate-type company with a full-page yellow page ad, one must accurately define what he/she/the HVAC company really has to offer, and who those are that are most likely to end up on your list of best customers.

I’m reminded of the incessant chatter that I keep hearing about if you’re not on board with social media marketing then you’re business will go the way of the dinosaur. And I keep answering back, “don’t you first need to teach one (the majority of HVACR guys) to type?” I can’t see being very productive at establishing fruitful business relationships on social media without the ability to type cohesive messages to prospects. Plus, I can assure the social media advocates that most HVACR tradesmen/business owners are busy out doing what they do to make a living. HVACR. Who’s got time to invest in a Facebook account and being Internet socially active, in a business sense?

More important than the need to type, is the need for HVACR contractors to target the right kind of customer for his/her business, myself included. My business model is very different than that of a typical Flat Rate business owner’s model. I want to go out and design/build custom, one-of-a-kind systems, and closely analyze defective systems and create reports for plaintiffs and lawyers in civil legal matters. Lots of Flat Rate companies will take any customer with an HVAC problem and a credit card. Then there are the in-betweens.

I just came off a project that took 7 months for me to design, build and complete the final punch list. The total cost was about $170,000 (the job costing hasn’t yet been finalized), and I made a reasonable profit for a great opportunity to build a set of signature HVAC systems. And, my customer will say that he got exceptional value for his money (testimonial coming soon).

But how did I find the opportunity to create cutting edge systems for an exceptional customer only a few miles from my headquarters, and a summer spent on the seaside making good money? It wasn’t on Linkedin. I met this customer at my local breakfast haunt, at the counter, 2 seats away. He had a baseball cap on with a local building contractor’s name embroidered on the side. I asked if he was an employee or a customer. He was a former customer, as I was a former sub for the same company. In an ironic coincidence, the project manager at the company had recommended me to this man when they were working on his house 2 years earlier, but I didn’t realize this then.

I told him I built HVAC systems to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars for the construction company and he fired back, “I have an HVAC project that I need to have done. Are you interested in giving me a bid?” Immediately, I envisioned the colossal waste of my time if my bid was not accepted. As anyone in the business of HVACR contracting knows, there is a lot of preparation that goes into preparing bids, in the hope of actually getting the project. Instead of giving him a direct answer, I had to figure this guy out. I asked him where he lived, and when he told me his address, I became more interested. He then went on to say that he had gotten one bid for systems installations costing $58,000, and another with a price tag of $129,000. “What do I do with that?” he said, frustrated.

I agreed to “take a look at his project” – remodel of a 1900s New England seaside colonial. When I got there I was a bit underwhelmed, until I walked through the front door. What I couldn’t see from the outside front, was obviously impressive once inside – a huge modern addition on the back. The house was 6,000 square feet and had nearly 200 windows. The thought of collecting all of the requisite information for a heat gain/heat loss report was daunting. Plus, the addition on this house was not an easy box to draw on a scratch pad, on site. The thought of doing all the necessary leg work to put together a professional estimate and proposal, then not getting the work seemed even more daunting. This is what happened to the 2 prior bidders. My hesitation was obvious.

“So, are you going to give me a bid?”, he asked again. “Sure.” I said, with a caveat. “Ill give you a bid, but it’s going to cost you $3,600.” “What?” he countered. “I’m going to give you the work. I can tell you know what you are doing!”

While I was flattered, I knew that I don’t necessarily want every job that comes my way. I want profitable outcomes from dealing with honest people that I like, and when I can design and build a system that becomes a literal work of art, from the best components available, including my own product designs/inventions. I told him I didn’t want every job and cited my refusal of a $50,000 job in recent weeks. He agreed to pay my design fee. I guaranteed system designs, bills-of-materials and labor, as well as the opportunity to shop the designs out for apples-to-apples bids, and that if he hired me to create the systems I would give him his money back from the final payment.

I was hired to produce technologically advanced and efficient systems and that’s what I did. Now I have a great portfolio project to use to advance my own cause. I’ll tell you this, 7 months on a project with one assistant, working for a hassle-free customer who is willing to pay me my price (he never even got another bid), sure made me more aware of what I need to focus my sales efforts on. Of course, not every project is this luxurious. These kinds of jobs are the exception, not the rule.

However, my next projects will involve work in several historic mansions, including The Fells, in Sunapee, NH. I think about the work that comes my way, and of how the accounts I’ve lost over the years are so not my type anyway. If I was a sales engineer, as in past positions, for another company I would be expected to keep all customers, regardless of how terrible they are to work for. I pretty much pick and choose the type of customers that I want to keep – the kind who want uncompromising quality, don’t think they are the only ones who deserve to make reasonable money, and who are reasonable people, in general. I especially seek out interesting projects, because that’s what motivates me to go to work in HVACR. I paid my dues as a service technician and installer for other companies, for years. I can now do what I want.

With that said, I know what I want, and I know where to get it. I also know what my best customer wants and I know I can give it to that customer type, consistently, every time. So tell me, how hard can it really be to be an effective salesman? It wouldn’t matter if I worked for someone else, as long as I knew what I was selling would bring me fulfillment and a decent paycheck, I could still be an effective salesman.

The dilemma is not what advertising medium produces the greatest sales results, but is what we are selling had better be something we’re not only talented, skilled and experienced in, but is personally and professionally satisfying. That includes targeting the right kind of customer, who may not be the next viewer of a YouTube video I may have posted, but someone from a favorite corner breakfast restaurant.

“HVAC SOS” is a forum where building-owners can get free answers and advice from professional technicians, installers, consultants and engineers.

While there are many HVAC answer sites on the Web, this site and the HVAC SOS forum is absolutely free to building-owners to post questions, comments and concerns and receive free professional advice and answers to whatever your problem(s) may be.

You read that correctly: Free HVACR answers on the HVAC SOS forum!

1st, you must register as a user on this site.

If you are a manufacturer and desire to enter the global circulator market with the greatest circulator design ever created, then contact John Rocheleau to learn how you can be a part of this exciting development!

If you’d prefer to call: 603-545-1282

When I invented the new breed of circulator flanges and valves in the 1990s, I did so with quality driving the design, not price. My first isolation flange prototype was actually fashioned from a Taco, Inc. 3/4″ threaded bronze flange that was machined to press-fit with a machined 3/4″ Apollo copper ball valve.

I licensed these flange and valve inventions to Taco in 1999. 6 weeks after Taco filed for a “Utility” patent on my behalf, Webstone Valves’ Michael Reck applied for a provisional patent, then 2 weeks later filed another provisional patent application on modifications of my designs and started advertising them for sale in numerous trade journals. Reck failed to provide the United States Patent Office with “all known prior art” (mine) and was successful in getting a patent of very similar valve design.

What became the standard fare in the trade for isolation flanges for circulators, has everything to do with a race-to-the-bottom in price for manufacture of designs that appeal to tradesmen in price range. This desire for lowest manufacturing cost has lead to compromises in construction that result in leaking and downright dangerous valves.

These valves are Watts isolation flanges that leak, yet they were installed on 9/30/05.

[Show as slideshow]

Here is the YouTube video of the valve leaking out the packing o-ring around the valve stem. In the video I mistakenly identified the leaking valves as Webstone. They are in fact Watts’ isolation flanges; not Webstone.

To replace the leaking Watts valves s in this threaded steel and iron supply and return primary/secondary manifold piping will involve a full day of re-piping with copper. There are no quality isolation flanges on the market, but my latest inventions address this issue.

Here is a PVF Limited (FW Webb) low-quality valve that literally exploded out the end of a high pressure pipe. I was allowed to take these pictures by an employee at FW Webb, in Exeter, NH. He told me the valve almost took a female worker’s head off when it let go. He also told me that Webb has redesigned their foreign valves so they won’t explode.

[Show as slideshow]

This is my 1st isolation flange fashioned with a Taco threaded bronze flange and an Apollo copper ball valve.

[Show as slideshow]

Here are my proprietary valve innovations all constructed with Apollo ball valve components – I just designed the valve bodies.

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I know there has been a mass defection by manufacturers and tradesmen alike toward inexpensive valves made in China, but fellow tradesmen, what you are doing is contributing to the demise of the valve industry and you are doing yourselves, your trade and your customers a huge disservice that is costing everyone. Meanwhile, we are shipping U.S. jobs overseas.

Once upon a time this trade and country was about quality and pride was displayed in the products we manufactured and in the moniker: Made in America. That time has returned!

These are my latest isolation flange creations that are simply the best quality you can buy. And they are all proudly Made In America!

[Show as slideshow]

Contact us if you would like a price and availability for GuruStreetFlanges, GuruStreetAccessoryTees and GuruHandles with your brand and valve designation on them.

“Forgot to CC you on the email below, Dennis. Here are the survey and feedback results:

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: SEJES Seminar
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:25:57 -0400
From: john <john@thehvacguru.com>
To: Mike O’Shea <Mike.OShea@fwwebb.com>

I think it went very well, Mike. There were 16-20 people. We had (most
of) them fill out a 3-question survey and a presentation feedback form,
as follows:

Survey
1.    What aspect of the HVACR/Plumbing trade are you in?
__________________________
2.    How many years of experience do you have in the trade? ____
3.    What age group are you in?
a.     ⃝   18-30
b.     ⃝   31-40
c.     ⃝   41-50
d.     ⃝   over 50
4.    Briefly state your computer experience including any Excel training.
________________________________________
5.    How do you charge for your services?
a.    ⃝   “time & materials”
b.    ⃝   “flat rate”
c.    ⃝   other (describe) _________________________
6.    Do you have employees? ____ If yes, how many? ____
7.    Do you plan to hire employees in the next year? ____
8.    What interested you in coming to this presentation?

_________________________________

Survey results:
1. All were in various aspects of plumbing/hvacr/sprinkler systems
2. 15, 13, 20, 35, 20+, 10, 20+, 7, 30, 32, 30+, 30, 30+
3. (0) younger than 18-30, (3) 31-40, (5) 41-50, (6)
4. Intermediate, Quickbooks, Basic, Fairly experienced w/Excel, average
ability, formal training with Basic, Limited, basic, none, none,
Office/Quicken/Web Connect, basic, 0, very very little
5. T&M, T&M & Flat Rate, T&M, T&M, T&M & Flat Rate, Flat Rate,
Contract/T&M, Contract/T&M, T&M, T&M, T&M & Flat Rate, T&M & Flat
Rate/Estimate Bid & Contract, T&M, T&M & contract
6. Y-1, N, Y-6, Y-2, N, N, N, Y-2, N, N, Y-1 & 2 subs, Y-1, Y-1
7. Y, N, Y, Don’t Know, N, N, N, Y, N, N, N, Maybe, N
8. Excel in Selling jobs, learn about business end, gain business
knowledge, become more profitable, become better at estimating, cost
estimating, making more $, to better myself and company, learning
estimate costs, always interested, am I making all that I should be?,
supper, to learn more about estimating

Feedback Form

1.    How interested are you in using SEJES?
__ not at all   __ somewhat   __ very

2.    What is the likelihood you will use SEJES?
__ never  __ maybe    __ will definitely use it

3.    Did you find this seminar valuable?
__ no   __ somewhat   __ very

Would you like to be contacted for further training on SEJES and other
TheHVACguru.com downloads when seminars are scheduled? If yes, enter
your contact information below.
Name:
Company Name:
Telephone:
Email:

Feedback results:
1. very, very, very, very, very, very, very, not at all, somewhat,
somewhat, very
2. maybe, definitely, maybe, definitely, definitely, definitely, maybe,
never, maybe, maybe, definitely
3. very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, somewhat, somewhat, very

So, as you can see…there is definitely interest in this topic!

I’m interested in doing the next presentation at any branch you think is
appropriate. Can you think of a branch and a date? I can do it anytime.
Also, I am doing a presentation at the annual meeting for the PFGFHVAC
Association on 10/29, at the Grappone Center, in Concord.

Thanks, Mike, I enjoyed doing the presentation and look forward to the next.

Take care,
John

On 10/19/2011 10:54 AM, Mike O’Shea wrote:

John

How did it go last night ?

How was the turnout ?

Please advise

Thanks for going up to Madison !

Mike

Mike O’Shea
General Manager
F.W.Webb Co.
10 Sumner Dr.
Dover, NH 03820
603-749-3100
mike.oshea@fwwebb.com

—–Original Message—–
From: john [mailto:john@thehvacguru.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 10:15 AM
To: dennis wilson
Cc: mos@fwwebb.com
Subject: SEJES Seminar

Hi Dennis,

One thing I forgot to show the attendees of last nights presentation was
the outcome of the estimate for the “low-bid” radiant job. You might
pass on in conversation that the low bid job was done for $72,000 (which
they new) and my SEJES estimate (done accurately) came out to $289,000.
Wendy was reminding me of the time and I rushed through to conclusion
and forgot all about showing the class the final number that we were
building up to. Doh!

Again, it was nice meeting you and learning a little about your
background. Stay in touch and please let me know the verbal feedback
from your customers.

Best,

–
John Rocheleau
The HVAC Guru, LLC
www.thehvacguru.com “

I’ve always asked myself why would anyone want to use solder-less copper joining methods. Then on a heating service call the support I needed for my argument stared me in the face.

Here they are, pictures of a 2-year old heating system installation.

[Show as slideshow]

Come on, really. Can an o-ring seal permanently, like solder? The pictures above may suggest they can’t.

I will admit, I have never installed a pressed copper system and haven’t even held a compression tool. I do not claim to be an expert on press fittings, nor do I have any other experience as a witness to leaks in a press system, other than the system in the pictures above, which by the way, is the only press system installation that I’ve seen – so, 100% of the press systems I’ve seen have leaked.

If I were an installer/contractor of press fittings, I would wonder why I would want to hurry up and finish the copper piping so quickly with a press-type system, when that’s how contractors make their money: selling their labor. Increasingly in the HVACR trade, what once were profit opportunities for tradesmen, have become that very thing for manufacturers. I say to tradesmen, do good work and profit from your labor, don’t give it away to a manufacturer. Let manufacturers gain your business through the fair marketing of quality and innovative products.

By using press fittings to accomplish an installation more quickly, the contractor is giving away his opportunity to make money by selling his labor to his customer. Instead, his business relationship is transformed into one with a manufacturer (of press-type copper systems and PEX), with whom he purchases a product that actually robs him of his profitable labor sales opportunity and costs more than the solder method.

Tradesmen who sell press-type copper piping systems, or PEX tubing, or pre-built copper and steel manifolds, sell the creative aspects of a job too. Before you know it, all craftsmanship in the trade will leave it and be replaced with the cheapest systems being installed by tradesmen will really have no say at all. Really, suppliers determine what tradesmen will buy, therefore, sell to the end user. Increasingly and alarmingly, wholesalers are selling an ever increasing amount of product that is imported from “developing Third World countries, and most of this stuff just doesn’t hold up.

I’m sure there are ‘good’ applications for press systems, just as there are applications where PEX makes sense like, a space in a building where repairs to a traditional copper system by means of soldering with open flame is not a safe option. While I have already stated that I have never used press fittings, I do use PEX, but only in applications where piping the installation in copper is difficult – like in a vertical chase-way from a basement to a 4th floor, or where a fire hazards are high. PEX works well in rough-in applications where the PEX won’t be seen afterward, ’cause boy is that PEX ugly when compared to a finely crafted copper installation, especially when the water inside is hot and the tubing sags, as well as when impurities in the fluid is cooked in a boiler and turn black, coloring the inside of the tubing (in the case of translucent PEX).

However, I will say that Viega FostaPEX is the best PEX product I have used for piping in place of copper, and I would not hesitate to use this awesome product again. Still, I am a copper fan.

Nothing beats a soldered copper fitting, especially tin/silver/antimony solders, when it comes to ease of application and integrity of the connection! Plus, doesn’t craftsmanship and nice looking work account for anything anymore?

Here are photos enough to get the point across.

[Show as slideshow]

In the photo with the tape measure we can see the thickness of the insulation – a mere 1/4″ comprised of 5 thin layers of plastic material, including bubble wrap. Logic might suggest that this thickness can’t possibly compare to 2″ foam insulation with a R-value of 10.

It can also be seen in the photos that the bubble layer has lost all of its air inside the plastic bubbles from the compressive force of the tons of concrete poured over it.

This is not the first job I have seen bubble wrap used on and I can tell you that it leads to many law suits, several of which I have been the expert witness on the stand being grilled by defense attorneys who try, but fail, to break my credibility and testimony. So far, every case I’ve worked on has resulted in a ruling for the plaintiff who was financially harmed as a consequence of heating system installers who try to ‘save money’ by skimping on insulation quality.

Often times the heating installer was duped about the insulating characteristics of the product he thought  was on par with 2″ thick foam, and they are sued right out of business.

The ones who should really be put out of business are the manufacturers of bubble wrap-type insulation who overstate the insulating integrity and R-value of their products. Many of these companies have been sued by the Federal Trade Commission for inaccurately claiming high R-values of their products.

Even though one company was fined $150,000 by the FTC, they continue to sell their poor insulating products to unwitting contractors and building owners alike. The financial damage to a building owner is immense. Think about what it would cost to fix the radiant slab system that was under-insulated and put more heat into the ground than into the room.

There often is no fix for a badly insulated radiant floor heating system! The only fix is to install another heating system.

I have been involved with several cases like this and the monthly fuel bills have been so extreme ($1,500 to $3,000 per month for a residence!), that the building owners have had to shut the systems off entirely, because they consumed an enormous amount of fuel with little heat going into the room.

The next time you install a radiant floor heating system in a slab, think twice about using bubble wrap products and go with the highest R-value you can find, and don’t forget that vapor barrier!