Plastic Piping System Bond?

[jcole]

I had an inspector recently fail an inspection of mine because I did not bond the water heater. I asked him if he was talking about bonding the plastic (pex) water system because I knew I had hooked up the equipment ground. And he said yes and that the only place I could do it was at the water heater because it had copper stub ups and was accessible.

To keep a long conversation short, he said he was waiting on the people at the state gov. to say yey or ney but until then he was requiring it. I didnt arque because I didnt have my code book and he said he didnt either.

Today I had continuing education with one of the white collars who has something to do at the state gov. I asked about this situation. This was his answer in short form:

That it was a good reguirement because the equipmnent ground only bonds the shell of the water heater. And that if the heating element shorted to the water, it would not trip the breaker.

I know that the code only requires metal piping systems likely to become energized to be bonded but does he have a good point? Doesnt fresh water have more resistance than people think and probaly wouldnt trip the breaker anyway? I expected him to call the inspector an idiot so I was shock with his answer.

Opinions please.

 

[infinity]

Sounds like you're 0 for 2. IMO they're both incorrect.

 

[ceknight]

That it was a good reguirement because the equipmnent ground only bonds the shell of the water heater. And that if the heating element shorted to the water, it would not trip the breaker.

So basically they want you to bond the water?

Maybe you should put one of those clamp-on needle valves on the pex, screw the needle in until it pierces the pipe, and insert the bonding jumper where the plastic tubing is supposed to go.

 

[George Stolz]

Opinions please.

They both need to take a class, or find the requirement to bond water that we haven't seen, one or the other.

There was a proposal to bond poolwater by a prescribed method, it had life for a moment and was resoundingly shot down.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I find that an absurd requirement because water is a bad conductor. I have seen many water heaters with copper piping systems that were bonded at the service and they failed to open a OCD when the heater element was broken in two pieces.

 

[zbang]

Yep, definitely sounds like they've both been out in the sun too long. I've got a reference of "In pure water, sensitive equipment can detect a very slight electrical conductivity of 0.055 ?S/cm at 25 ?C." That is pratically nothing (100's of megohms, if I convert correctly).