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Copper fears to tread
Copper theft has sky-rocketed making the use of copper piping in the SA’s plumbing systems risky. Is composite pipe a viable alternative? Writer Nicholas Owsley
very once in a while industry will come up with a solution to a social challenge. Copper piping has been an industry favourite for residential and commercial plumbing for many years due its highly accommodating physical properties. In the past few years, however, copper theft has sky-rocketed and made the use of copper piping in plumbing systems risky and burdensome from a security point-of-view. Largely in response to this challenge, composite pipe technology has made major strides in recent years at improving product quality, and is increasingly becoming a viable alternative to copper. The product of 20 years of research and development in Germany, Ginde South Africa’s multi-layer composite pipe system is one of the larger players in the market.
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According to the manufacturers, these multi-layer hybrids of plastic and aluminium generally boast many of the best properties of copper piping while avoiding a number of the drawbacks. Typically, copper pipes display impressive temperature stability and can be exposed to very high temperatures, a property that traditional plastic pipes do not possess. Multi-layer pipes, however, due to their aluminium core, are highly heat resistant and can face a large range of temperatures without damage or contamination. Multi-layer pipes also match copper pipes in flexibility and strength, another of the major value-adds of copper piping. This allows the piping to be installed with far fewer fittings. Multi-layer piping technology maintains these benefits without compromising on necessities such as durability and pressure stability. This