Photo Gallery D4: Soft Foam Insulation
Soft foam insulation is preferred by contractors due to easier installation, its clean finished appearance, and less irritation compared to traditional fiberglass insulation. It is growing in popularity to for many residential and smaller commercial properties where its smaller diameter piping systems are more easily covered by foam. Soft foam is substantially better as a covering for smallest diameter pipe fittings such as vent lines and drains.
However, soft foam insulation has significant drawbacks not immediately apparent, not well known, and certainly not advertised. In many cases, it will result in far greater damage to cold water carrying pipe in comparison to fiberglass insulation, as this photo gallery demonstrates.
While the thickness and appearance of soft foam insulation would suggest superior resistance to moisture migration, moisture often quickly penetrates through to the cold pipe surface. More importantly, soft foam insulation naturally degrades over time; a problem accelerated by the higher temperatures of any hot water system. Sealants at the seams offer varying levels of effectiveness but ultimately weaken with age to produce extended separations of its edges. As the material itself degrades, it becomes harder, less flexible, and more brittle, which then leads to shrinking and cracking. The resulting cracks and openings then allow further moisture infiltration. When covered by vinyl or metal jacketing, any indication to a problem becomes hidden view, and the long term potential for serious damage to steel pipe is greatly increased.
Furthermore, as the foam deteriorates its produces a weak acidic condition which further increases external pipe corrosion. Opening soft foam insulation and finding it seemingly bonded to the pipe itself is a common indication to this condition; making the removal of the insulation far more difficult. Although insulation failure generally has no corrosive impact against copper pipe, as it does for steel pipe, the acidic conditions caused by the degradation of soft foam insulation also presents a significant threat to copper piping.
Cutting open soft foam insulation in order to conduct UT testing will often release a significant quantity of water which has accumulated along an extended length of pipe; sufficient in quantity to suggest to others that a failure at the pipe itself has occurred. The weight of that trapped water has even distorted the insulation into a oblong rather than round shape, ruptured seams, or pulled it away from the pipe itself.
