Photo Gallery D1:  Missing Insulation

Missing or damaged insulation often occurs over time, and may be due to foot traffic, incomplete repairs, repeated impacts, emergency events, and other maintenance related activities   For waste and vent system where it is installed to reduce sound, no real impact exists.  For domestic hot water or hot water heating systems, missing insulation represents an energy loss.  For high pressure steam and high temperature hot water systems, it raises a greater threat in case of accidental contact.

The most prominent threat, however, is at chill water and dual temperature systems, as our many Photo Galleries document.  Although missing insulation usually prompts its own repair after dripping condensation becomes a problem, that may not always be the case.  Given the inherent difficulty in insulating smaller diameter pipe, as well as pumps, strainers, and other odd shaped piping components, insulation is far more likely to be either missing or inadequate.  Strapped or tied together insulation jackets, while providing some aesthetic benefit, offer no protection whatsoever to any cold pipe surface, as moisture passes right through.

Similar to all other forms of corrosion, the impact of missing insulation and its resulting external corrosion is greatest at any smaller diameter threaded steel pipe having inherently lesser wall thickness.  In addition, missing insulation at a 1 in. top vent or bottom drain then provide access for moisture to enter, migrate, and condense to produce damage to the larger diameter mains as well.

The damage potential is very much increased in very humid parts of the country such as Houston and Miami, and a far lesser threat in Phoenix or Anchorage.  Allowed to exist over a long enough time to negatively impact the pipe can only be attributed to a lack of maintenance.