Shortage of pipe insulation?

[ProDave]

I needed some more 22mm by 19mm pipe insulation to cover the last of the pipes before the ceiling goes up.

 

Screwfix stopped listing it except in bulk packs of 50 metres.  Toolstation list it but out of stock.  Went into Jewson while in town, out of stock.  eventually found some in Travis Perkins, twice the price I would have paid if screweys or TS had it.

[Onoff]

Wickes? Where I got mine but I didn't need much:

 

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Pipe-Insulation-Byelaw-22-x-1000mm-Pack-3/p/210012

[ProDave]

4 hours ago, Onoff said:

Wickes? Where I got mine but I didn't need much:

 

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Pipe-Insulation-Byelaw-22-x-1000mm-Pack-3/p/210012

I was in the town, not the city.  And that is about what I paid at TP, still twice what screwy's were selling it previously.

[PeterW]

No shortage of Climaflex but Screwys have done a deal with a supplier that is similar to Polyflex or KFlex and it’s cr@p.... 

[Adsibob]

On 21/09/2018 at 22:44, PeterW said:

No shortage of Climaflex but Screwys have done a deal with a supplier that is similar to Polyflex or KFlex and it’s cr@p.... 

is climaflex considered inferior?

[JohnMo]

B&q do climaflex, I know Elgin had stock at the weekend, maybe Inverness have stock also?

[PeterW]

15 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

is climaflex considered inferior?

Nope it is one of the best polys, some of the others are rubbish. If you can stretch to it then go for a nitrile rubber insulation such as InsulTube or Armaflex. 

[JohnMo]

Toolstation Elgin has bylaw 49 in stock 11 lengths, Inverness has 1.  When I bought it last it was climaflex.

[Adsibob]

37 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Nope it is one of the best polys, some of the others are rubbish. If you can stretch to it then go for a nitrile rubber insulation such as InsulTube or Armaflex. 

Is this recommendation for nitrile rubber also the case for internal use? I just need to insulate the copper pipe coming out of my boiler and into the HW cylinder.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Adsibob

[PeterW]

Nitrile can be used anywhere. It’s 2/3rd the thickness of Poly for the same uValue

[Adsibob]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Nitrile can be used anywhere. It’s 2/3rd the thickness of Poly for the same uValue

So nitrile is better than poly. But what about things like Isover pipe insulation (which I believe is a type of glass fibre covered with alu foil, like this) or rock wool pipe insulation, like this). Where do they fit into the hierarchy?

There are a couple of spots where I only have about 12mm of space between a pipe and a wall for pipe insulation, so would be good to understand where to use the more expensive stuff and where I can just increase the thickness (e.g. some places i have up to 40mm of space).

[PeterW]

Isover and Rockwool are semi rigid usually used for process pipework / steam etc, and used in commercial premises where fire resilience is required. 
 

Using Nitrile can be a lot easier as it’s softer and compresses better than poly, and can be slightly more resilient. 

[Adsibob]

10 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Isover and Rockwool are semi rigid usually used for process pipework / steam etc, and used in commercial premises where fire resilience is required. 
 

Using Nitrile can be a lot easier as it’s softer and compresses better than poly, and can be slightly more resilient. 

Thanks. Is there a benefit of using isover/rock wool over nitrile though? I ask because I have a few 1.6m straight runs of 22mm pipe which could take a rigid insulation product relatively easily.

[PeterW]

It’s 3 times the cost and half as good efficiency wise so why would you ..? Nitrile takes minutes to install. 

[Adsibob]

3 hours ago, PeterW said:

It’s 3 times the cost and half as good efficiency wise so why would you ..? Nitrile takes minutes to install. 

When you put it like that, it's a no brainer. Why would people buy anything else? I wonder if it's because Nitrile is a bit more limited product range. For example, the thickest wall insulation Armaflex does for a 28mm pipe is only 25mm thick walls. But maybe that's because any extra thickness wouldn't make a difference??

[Adsibob]

Scratch that, I've just found 32mm thick in armaflex although whilst it is slit, it's not self sealing, which is a pity: https://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/insulation-c555/armacell-armaflex-class-o-insulation-32mm-wall-c623

Edited August 2, 2022 by Adsibob

[Adsibob]

12 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Scratch that, I've just found 32mm thick in armaflex although whilst it is slit, it's not self sealing, which is a pity: https://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/insulation-c555/armacell-armaflex-class-o-insulation-32mm-wall-c623

I found a 32mm wall thick self sealing insulation for 28mm pipe: https://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/insulation-c555/rubaflex-class-o-pipe-insulation-c921