Good afternoon, dear guests and subscribers of the "Build for Myself" channel!
In this article I would like to disassemble and compare two types of heating / water supply pipes - these are metal-plastic pipes and pipes made of cross-linked polyethylene.
It should be noted right away that both a metal-plastic pipe and a cross-linked polyethylene pipe are two polymer pipes!
Today, I often hear that XLPE is superior to metal-plastic pipes in many ways. I think that advertising convinces us of this, but in reality the situation is different! I propose to objectively look at both products.
Friends, if, for example, we take metal-plastic PEX-AL-PEX or PEX-b-AL-PEX-b (polyethylene - aluminum - polyethylene) or cross-linked polyethylene PEX-a, PEX-b, PEX-c or PE-RT, then we will see that the material from which both pipes are made is the same, everywhere cross-linked polyethylene.
The only difference is that a product called XLPE pipe is cheaper to manufacture, accordingly, the advertisement shouts that we should buy it exactly, there the margin is much more pleasant for manufacturer :-)))
I propose to consider the key characteristics by which we make a choice in favor of certain pipes:
1. Oxygen permeability or oxygen diffusion. Any reinforced plastic pipe has aluminum foil, but not every XLPE can boast of this. Even those high-molecular-weight alcohols that cover cross-linked polyethylene at the factory do not save the situation, since any scratch creates a potentially dangerous place.
In addition, scientists have not invented anything better as a barrier layer than an aluminum layer.
2. Linear expansion. Again, aluminum is responsible for this. Therefore, we remove all pipes without an aluminum layer to the side. Remain with us to choose everything MP-pipes and several types of cross-linked polyethylene.
3. Narrowing the diameter. Yes, the MP-pipe fitting narrows the diameter of the base material, but the problem is different - XLPE has a thicker pipe wall than metal-plastic and with the same diameter along the entire length of the pipe, we get a smaller passage, thus we lose volume coolant!
4. "Memory" of the material. This is a definite plus of XLPE. One inaccurate movement with the MP-pipe and it breaks, the cross-linked polyethylene is restored. But, because of this property, aesthetics suffer. Any external wiring looks disgusting because of the roughness that the XLPE pipe tends to reach.
Why don't we treat MP pipes well? Dear friends, this advertisement tried its best. On almost every website of a cross-linked polyethylene manufacturer, you can see in bold cons of MP pipeswhere it comes first: Compression fittings are leaking!
Undoubtedly, compression fittings need to be tightened every six months or a year. But, professional installers have already moved away from such fittings +100500 years ago. Why procrastinate on this topic. There is a press fitting - I pressed the connection and forgot about leaks for decades.
Simply, you need to have your hands from the right place and carefully work with the MP pipe, and what is important - to have a good tool, then there will be no problems.
But, another question: why manufacturers of cross-linked polyethylene are switching from brass fittings to cheaper raw materials - to plastic, i.e. PPSU? If you did, but reduce prices - but they only grow !!!
Do not judge strictly, this is a subjective opinion!
Managers and the advertising system itself are built in such a way that employees are trained by experienced marketers and prepared for how to do it right from the context pull out information and manipulate this data, which even experienced specialists doubt the quality of goods that were previously good opinions.
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