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re radiant floor heating for studio and pot drying.

updated sun 29 nov 98

 

Tom Wirt on sat 28 nov 98


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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Currently, hidden from the consumer a large legal action, possibly to be
a very big class action between radiant floor tube (Heatway to name one)
distributors and Goodyear over the real durability of the tubing used.



This was true once upon a time, but suppliers discovered the problem years ago
and solved it with different plastics the old tube was gray, new tube is blue.
Also, most of the failures were from use
of antifreeze in the tube. We were steered away from using antifreeze by the
heating company that installed our floor. It also wears on other components
such as the diaphragm in the expansion tank. The risk in using just water is
that you obviously can't allow the system to freeze. I really don't know what
the freezing results would be since you're dealing with a flexible tube encased
in concrete in contact with unfrozen ground (with an insulation layer). On the
other hand, I'm not going to volunteer to let ours freeze up just to find out.


As to drying, in the winter the pots definitely dry faster near the floor
(bottom shelf of ware cart)...but quite evenly. In fact, I can tell when it's
summer again, when the stuff on the top of the ware cart dries faster. Then
it's time to shovel out through the snow and starter the barbecue. That's how
it is here in Minnesota (where it's to be 60 deg and sunny today).



Tom