This is a tale of two radiant heating professionals in New Mexico: the first a radiant pioneer, and the second a radiant perfectionist. Their efforts are separated by roughly three decades.

What our pioneer started, our perfectionist, Keefer Rader, is refining.

“A pioneer is an early adopter,” explains Rader who owns Outlaw Mechanical in Albuquerque. “That’s the lens through which you must view his work. On the fly, he was figuring out how to sell radiant when few others were.”

Rader, however, isn’t just refining New Mexico’s early radiant systems one at a time. He’s also taken education into his own hands, teaching even his own competitors for the benefit of the entire hydronics industry in the Southwest.

Simple Approach

To begin, we must travel back to the Albuquerque of the 1990s. 

Our pioneer took a simple approach to radiant design that kept costs down. Supply water, for example, came out of the boiler, went to one or more manifolds and returned directly to the boiler. One pump was used to accomplish this and there was no mixing or tempering valve or primary-secondary piping.

Thanks to this simple approach, his installation crews would tube two, sometimes three, homes per day. The method gained traction with local builders due to his competitive rates. In 2001 alone, it was estimated that the company installed 1 million lineal feet of radiant tubing in approximately 200 homes.

“Some of our pioneer’s install practices were great,” Rader adds. “For example, he ran half-inch PEX from the boiler room to his thermostat locations to use as a conduit for the T-stat wire. He was also one of the first to install remote manifolds and actually maintain consistent loop lengths.”

Other contractors in the area followed suit and were installing copycat designs, too. This simple approach, over the years, meant that 25 percent of the single-family homes in the Albuquerque area were heated with radiant floors. 

All these years later, however, has only added to the radiant industry’s knowledge base. For example, contractors know that pumping straight through a cast-iron boiler without mixing supply and return water is a recipe for flue gas condensate, leading to boiler corrosion. Other potential issues, include short-cycling boilers, overheating of floors, lack of energy efficiency and damage to radiant tubing.

The prevailing thought at the time, at least in the Southwest, was that these simple systems were immune to flue gas condensate issues for two reasons: First, by using many small zones, flow rates were low. Second, Albuquerque’s high elevation (5,000 feet above sea level) inhibited the production of condensate.

What resulted in many Albuquerque homes in the following years has proven these assumptions false.

Maybe Not So Basic

Maybe taking a not-so-basic approach to radiant is better in the long-run.

Quite possibly the biggest issue with these circa-1990 installations done by many other local early adopters to radiant was the use of improper tubing.

“Non-oxygen barrier PEX was typically used, but so was Sola Roll and polybutylene pipe,” Rader says. “I’ve seen a great number of pipe failures as a result. Even if the pipe doesn’t have a catastrophic failure, an oxygenated system paired with a cast-iron boiler creates potential for serious problems.”

Up until about two years ago, Rader witnessed a slow, but steady decline in the hydronic market in New Mexico. Sure, some of that decline is the result of competitive technologies, but Rader points most of the blame at the experience homeowners have had with the early radiant systems. 

“In addition, when I look at my customer base, about 20 percent of them have Sola Roll or polybutylene pipe that’s likely to fail over the next five years,” Rader adds. “Of the pipe failures that I witness regularly, 30 years tends to be the lifespan for a system with Sola Roll or polybutylene.”

To make matters worse, many in the trades continue to install radiant systems the same way they were done in the 1990s. Thankfully, the plastic pipe industry – through education – has done an admirable job mitigating the challenges of oxygenated systems. Rarely is non-barrier pipe used for radiant applications these days, but more than a few new installations lack primary-secondary piping or mixing valves. 

“If we don’t start rewriting the script and making these changes, the radiant industry in New Mexico, and Southwest in general, will die,” Rader adds. “A colleague of mine in southern Colorado has the same impression I do. Many homeowners aren’t repairing their systems, let alone building new homes with radiant heat. Instead of repairing, people are abandoning hydronics. The answer is simple. We need education.”

Long-standing Relationship

When Rader founded Outlaw Mechanical in 2008, he sought to work with a smaller distributor. He knew, from experience with a plumbing company he operated and sold previously in Colorado, that the relationship he could build with a locally owned supply house would serve him well in the future.

He found what he needed at Doc Savage Supply, based in Albuquerque since 1965.

“To this day, I buy from them almost exclusively,” Rader says. “Jacob Coffman, their in-house HVAC and hydronics guru, has helped me immensely. He remains a friend and one of my most valuable resources.”

As the years passed, Rader stopped doing air-conditioning work and focused on becoming one of the region’s most knowledgeable hydronics specialists. He attributes that personal growth to Coffman as well as the training he sought on his own, most notably through U.S. Boiler Co. and Taco Comfort Solutions. The main challenge he faced, however, was procuring the product he wanted to install.

“Doc Savage didn’t stock Taco or U.S. Boiler products,” Rader says. “I would regularly drive to Colorado to purchase Alpine, Aspen and Series 2 boilers. So, I pressed Doc Savage to bring in those two lines. About two years ago, they did.”

Not long afterward, Rader installed an Alta condensing boiler at Doc Savage Supply’s operations, to provide heat to a snowmelt system in addition to serving as a functional display and to offer live-fire boiler training.

Rader and Coffman had often discussed the need for more hydronic training opportunities in the Albuquerque area. Doc Savage has hosted Rick Mayo, Taco’s western regional residential trainer, three or four times in the past, but there was still a need for boiler-specific training. 

“Roughly 40 percent of our customers are involved with hydronic work,” Coffman explains. “This area has been starved for boiler training, so Keefer and I came up with the idea of hosting a U.S. Boiler authorized factory training session.”

Educating the Competition 

After speaking with Coffman about hosting a boiler training session at Doc Savage, Rader brought up the topic to Dave Hansen, product marketing manager, and Chris Mitchell, vice president of sales, both from U.S. Boiler Co.

“They asked me if I’d help lead the training event, and I agreed,” Rader adds. “We need to clean the slate of old habits.”

The initial training event took place last March, and included two classes. Rader presented “Hydronics in the Southwest” while Hansen’s course was called “Speed and Precision: Elevate your Hi-Efficiency Boiler Work.” Roughly 60 attendees travelled to Doc Savage for the event. 

“I began by asking attendees what they wanted to learn,” Rader says. “When they answered, I realized that we could be in class all week. I covered what I could in the time permitted.”

Rader discussed the importance of primary-secondary piping and/or the need to include a mixing valve when a cast-iron boiler is paired with radiant. He explained that accomplishing this is much simplified with the use of Taco’s iSeries Mixing Valve because it includes outdoor reset to modulate supply water temperatures based on outdoor conditions.

He then touched on proper pump sizing and the difference between Delta-T and Delta-P circulators. Attendees learned how to read a pump curve. 

Finally, he discussed the different types of radiant tubing, especially those which technicians may encounter in homes throughout the area. This led to properly identifying an oxygenated system. 

“If technicians can’t identify an oxygenated system, it’ll lead to a lifetime of maintenance nightmares,” Rader explains. “I’ve spoken to homeowners who’ve been forced to replace conventional boilers every five years simply because the system is oxygenated and the boiler is condensing.”

The answer to this problem, Rader explains, always includes magnetic filters and water treatment, such as Fernox, Sentinel or Hercules. Rader adds the boiler should also be isolated from the oxygenated portion of the system with a heat exchanger, “much like you’d isolate a glycol loop for snowmelt.”

Hansen adds: “Keefer did a great job. His expert credibility as a local contractor served the participants better than traditional factory training. He has a great perspective because he’s in the field himself and he knows the Albuquerque market so well. He took a day out of his own schedule to educate his competitors for the advancement of the hydronic industry. That’s admirable.” 

Hansen’s own presentation explained the new time-saving automatic features of the Alta condensing boiler and reviewed enhancements in conventional cast iron boiler technology, like heating block construction, integral low water cut offs, and induced-draft/direct-venting. He finished his presentation by taking attendees outside to see the U.S. Boiler Co. training van. 

Rewinding the Clock

There are two timelines at play in New Mexico’s hydronic sector, according to Rader. The first is the 30-year countdown for non-oxygen barrier tubing failures. The second is a veritable desert for hydronic service work.

“We had a 10-year gap between 2010 and 2020 when only 5 percent of local new construction homes were getting radiant systems,” Rader explained. “We’ll need to contend with a lack of hydronic service and replacement work.”

New construction radiant installations are now slowly coming back to the Southwest, according to Coffman. There’s more interest now than 10 years ago, though some of that interest may correspond to the influx of new residents the area witnessed recently. Retirees moving to the Southwest from the Northeast and Midwest have a more positive experience with hydronics. 

“We as hydronic professionals need to re-educate ourselves and homeowners,” Rader adds. “As far as homeowners are concerned, winning will depend on our ability to show the value, efficiency and high comfort levels of properly installed hydronic systems.”

Hansen adds: “If we all get better, we all benefit, and so does the homeowner. A big thanks to Doc Savage Supply and to the tradespeople that showed up for the training event. It’s obvious that some contractors in the Albuquerque area are committed to changing the future of the local hydronic market.”