Kevin Derheimer

Dear Sean

Take a look at this pdf, it’s the installation guide for viega’s Climate panel system.  It clearly shows installation on vertical walls.  I’ve installed this product myself and love it, because it has much faster response time than tubes imbedded in gypcrete and its only 1/2”, so doors and other transitions are a breeze.  

https://www.viega.us/content/dam/viega/aem_online_assets/download_assets/us/impr_1218_climate_panel.pdf

Its expensive, so I have played around with making my own, it is for 5/16” tubing, so a router with T slot cutter and straight edge will get the grooves done.  There is a thin aluminum panel stamped to the back to reflect heat out or up towards where you want the heat to go.  There are rolls of radiant barriers avail to use for the backing.  

I’ve not had to use this on walls yet, but have known it’s doable and always keep it in mind.

Yes, you are heating objects, not air, but we still use thermostat that measures air temp to control the system, the air gets warmed by the objects.

For this to work, I believe you need to have the tubes against the back of the wall material, be it wood or drywall, that’s why the climate panel idea.  

If you do the convection approach, I’d be concerned that you are putting the warmed air up at ceiling height, not where you want it.  I volunteer at a facility that has hydronic radiators behind wall panels very similar to what you detailed, we have never seen this system give any useful benefit to the hall.  Instead we only use the part of the system with tubes Imbedded in the concrete floor.  This system is massive, the convective part has over 40 hydronic radiators behind the walls, and we never use it because when it’s cold, the heat ends up at ceiling level, and you freeze unless you use the infloor system.

I have John Siegenthaler’s book and highly recommend reading it, a very valuable reference, has helped me figure out how to do several out of the box installations.

Years ago a doctor friend gave me his "simple ear infection remedy doctors don't want you to know about cause it looses them patients" method.  Simply get a tube of neosporin or brand name antibacterial ointment from drugstore, easier if it has narrow spout, have the person lay on their side with infected ear facing up, and place a small amount of neosporin at mouth of ear canal and have the person lay still for a while so the body temp melts the ointment and it flows into the ear canal over the infected area.  Repeat if needed.  I have used this for many years and it always worked and usually pretty fast.  The cat might be a challenge, but I'd give it a try.

I see your post, and gave vote, you are at 50 now

So...  another perspective,  I pickup free very coarse mulch from the city, all hand loaded into a trailer, 5-6 yards at a time.  It is very coarse and ok for where i need mulch around trees and large areas where I don't go barefoot.  In other areas like flower beds or around the garden, I need it much finer, so I run loads through my Troy built super tomahawk with the screen having 1-1/2" holes.  This produces an very nice mulch.  I clear an area at the end of the loaded trailer for the chipper and pitchfork the coarse mulch into the hopper and the result piles up on the ground off the trailer.  This works good because of the size of the resulting pile, I'm not continuously forking chips out of the way.  The large screen allows mulch to go thru chilpper pretty fast, so if I work at an easy pace, I can pitchfork at a constant rate and not stop, other than to move the trailer forward or fork processed chips out of the way.  It takes me a few hours to process the 5-6 yards of mulch.

Yes, it is a lot of work, but it's 100% free product, I get very nice mulch, my wife likes it in the flower beds and garden, the mulch doesn't go to landfill, and I get a workout without having to pay for a gym!!  I can go pickup the coarse mulch whenever I want, so it's not another bothersome task I haven't gotten to yet, I have radio headset if I don't like the noise, uses maybe 2.5 gallons of gas per load.  For me, there are far more pros than cons, and it's really satisfying to see the beautiful results of all that work!
 

Joylynn

Congrats on getting it fixed!  

I work in the plumbing trade and would offer the following:

Polybutylene got its bad rap from the fittings failing, not the pipe itself.  I have worked on lots of jobs with PB and as long as it's still flexible, I don't try to convince homeowners to replace it, especially if it's obvious that they can't really afford to.  The class action suits happened due to flooding catastrophies caused by fittings leaking, most likely poor installation jobs.  PB was not designed for interior plumbing systems.  The systems used mostly home runs with minimal fittings.  The story I heard was that ambitious salesmen got together and convinced plumbers to use PB for applications it wasn't designed for.  The plumbers used tons of fittings, and buried them in walls, a good number did it really poorly!  Back in the day, I walked up to PB failed jobs and saw water running out the front doors of apartment complexes.  

I have jobs with PB that were build in the 80's.  So they are going on 40yrs old!  I have replaced lots of fittings and old distribution manifolds, all connected to the original PB.  You will hear lots of people tell you PB is horrible, and to never buy a house with PB.  I have lots of experience that proves otherwise.  So I would recommend checking for structural integrity, and flexibility, then use the proper transition fittings and continue on with pex.

The transition couplings are less than a dollar to just a couple of dollars, much less than the sharkbite fittings, but yes, you do need a crimp tool.  You will save money in the long run buying a crimp tool and fittings rather than sharkbite fittings.  I have had sharkbite fittings leak a disturbing number of times, and never use them anymore!  I know lots of plumbers who use them, they are quick and easy, but, In my experience, as well as the experience of friends in the business, they are not a safe long term fix, and should never be buried in walls or inaccessible areas.

The fitting you want is this
https://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBite-3-4-in-Brass-PEX-Barb-Polybutylene-Coupling-UC4016LFA/202270594?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CTHD%7CG%7C0%7CG-BASE-PLA-AllProducts%7C&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkpfWBRDZARIsAAfeXaqUcJ12K6HvMD67AqW_hx6aD4AABpKC2fNvHMm1Uhjtx0Niu3GkVZ0aAhEzEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CID_l_nppNoCFVAmHwod5BcOEw

If you get it at Home Depot or lowes, it comes with crimp rings, the bright one goes on the PB,
And the end with closer ridges goes into the PB.  They are cheaper at the plumbing supply house, you just need to buy rings separately.  

The cutter you ended up will work fine, the trick not to crush the PB, even with  that cutter is to put a little pressure on the pipe with the cutter, then rotate the cutter back and forth a little. This will start the cut and make it easy to finish.

This cutter from Home Depot is fine also, only $7

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Orbit-1-1-4-in-Poly-Pipe-Ergo-Cutter-26120/202206817?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CVF%7CG%7C0%7CG-VF-PLA%7C&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkpfWBRDZARIsAAfeXarrFKS-T7yep5gCzYE_1ffat8I5Y-FRxBBuViYSVFvSmKkCxnivVXgaAhcXEALw_wcB&dclid=CJGW88PwpNoCFY1IhgoddpcGwA

Hi celeste, it depends a lot where you are, there are a surprising number of municipalities that let you pull your own permits on your own house if you plan to live in it.  I have building experience, and feel comfortable doing as much of my own work as I can.  On my current home in Colorado, I had the electrician and plumber pull permit for rough in and I pulled the permits for trim, so I installled all the lights, switches, wired the main and sub panels, sinks, toilets, fixtures and so on.  The state let me dig the trench for the electrical service and hook up the wire to the meter base they put at the pole, all as a homeowner!  So do some checking with your building department and know that the inspectors see this from time to time and will make sure what you do is correct.

Thanks Scott and Megan, great ideas for me to try, I have tons of garlic to play with!

Hi aly
Are you making garlic oil for the taste or to preserve the garlic?  I grew garlic this season and have about 120 bulbs and not enough friends to unload it upon.  I'm looking for ways to preserve it.  Nice info.
Kevin

We have used various materials for clotheslines, mostly rope or stuff meant for clotheslines.  In most cases they work fine, sometimes sag in rain or cold then contract when dry.  We have a pulley system so we can stand by the door, out of snow or wet, put clothes on the line and then send all the clothes out to dry.  This works great when the knot is in the right place, as the knot won't go thru the pulley!  I've tried using 3-strand rope using a long splice, but stretch was still a problem.  I've looked at all the fancy clothesline hardware and couldn't find anything to join a clothesline into a loop that would still go thru a pulley.  So, I decided to come up with my own solution.  I chose coated steel wire rope, no stretch, won't stain clothes, and weather resistant.  I still couldn't find low profile couplers, so what I did is this:

I Put the pulleys on a slightly longer long piece of cable and installed the line, then tightened the line and marked where the ends would meet, added a half of an inch, and cut the cable.

I bought a ferrule and stop set for crimping cable, one size bigger than the cable,  I have 1/8" cable, so I used a 3/16" stop, The thing you crimp on one strand of cable.  I increased the chamfer on one side to help later.  Then slid the stop onto the cable as well.

Then I stripped 1/2" of coating off both ends and sort of unlaid the wire so the strands were straight and loose.  Then pushed the 2 ends of the cable together so the strands were evenly mixed and the cable looked like it lined up across the gap.  Then forced the stop over the married ends.  The fit was tight but a little coaxing got it all in.  You could see the strand ends on both sides of the stop.

Then since the stop was 3/16", I crimped using that spot on my swaging tool, followed by reswaging using the 1/8" spot.  I did multiple crimps across the stop so the stop was evenly mashed.  This left small wings on both sides of the crimp which I then ground off, smoothing what was left of the stop.

This left a relatively low profile connection, well pressed, and sort of working like a Chinese finger puzzle.  What's great is that the connection easily passes thru the pulley!!  I have a long threaded hook on one post so I can tighten the loop.  Hardly any sag and is holding up great!

I smothed the connection a little more after taking the pic below and I may coat the connection with epoxy to keep moisture out.

I'd love to hear if anyone has come up with something easier or cleaner to make a connection that will go thru the pulley.

Here are some pics of my process