Should an outdoor poly pipe be insulated?

[Adsibob]

I have two outdoor taps, each supplied by 15mm poly pipe. The poly pipe is not insulated. My dad was over the other day and told me to replace the poly pipe with copper because copper won’t crack when the temp drops below zero in winter. Is he Right?

i attach a picture of the pipe in question. Ironically the text on the pipe suggests all the info is on their website, but I couldn’t find it.

[Temp]

Ideally feed taps from above or behind so they can be isolated indoors and the pipe/tap drained for the winter.  

 

Water can expand 9% when it freezes. I thought plastic pipe was less prone to splitting than copper but plastic fittings more prone to failing than soldered copper? 

[CAdam]

Depends where you are in the country. Many houses I go to have os taps on a run of copper that cause no issues. My house has a 2 meter run! But on the south coast it barely gets down to freezing now. 

 

Always isolate indoors and a double check valve to satisfy water co. 

 

Strictly speaking all os pipe should be lagged. Can't speak much for plastic as it's not generally used outdoors on taps on domestic.

 

The through wall backplates are a good shout assuming where you want the tap and a supply are close. Always sleeve pipe through walls too 👍

[Marvin]

Is polypipe UV stable or does it break down over time?

[CAdam]

All plastic degrades outside. Off top of my head I think it is, it's polybutylene usually,  JG speedfit is said to be uv stable, might depend on brand.

 

Having said that MDPE, mains pipe, polyethylene, the blue stuff, isn't uv stable, but I've been to many farms for years where pipes were surface run for troughs and taps. No issues, not advised though.

[markc]

Copper pipe can split when frozen, or it pushes a compression fitting off the end