Radiant heating had a false start in this country back in the 1950s when customers and installers found out the hard way that copper corrodes when imbedded in concrete. Copper was the main tubing product used with radiant systems back in those days, and the leakers that developed killed enthusiasm for the technology until it was resurrected in this decade thanks to a variety of plastic and rubber piping products. Then, about a year ago, came word that Heatway’s Entran II hose had developed more than a few failures in the field. After this came to light in a misleading Wall Street Journal article that depicted radiant heat as a toy for the rich, it seemed to be, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, “déjà vu all over again.”
That hasn’t happened. Radiant heating continues to grow. This has to be taken as testimony to the strong appeal of radiant technology. Even the folks at Heatway tell me they’re enjoying a banner year despite the bad publicity. It seems that the market is growing so fast the Entran II catastrophe has amounted to nothing more than a speed bump.