Rumors of epic plumbing bills are also fueling panic in other ritzy resort areas such as Aspen, Colo., where radiant heat has been especially popular. Naturally, lawsuits are erupting. Heatway used in many of its products. Both Heatway and Goodyear say their products weren't at fault. Mo Siegel, chairman and founder of the herbal-tea company Celestial Seasonings Inc., for instance, is boiling mad at Goodyear.
Radiant heat has an impressive, if checkered, past.
The Romans invented the idea, running hot water beneath the floors of their bathhouses. Frank Lloyd Wright included radiant heat in many of his designs, and developer William Levitt fitted the modest homes in his Levittown, N.Y., subdivision with in-floor heat. But in a debacle little known outside of plumbing circles, the Levittown systems often corroded and failed. An electric pump forces a solution of hot water and antifreeze through loops of rubber tubing laid into concrete beds or stapled under floorboards. When things have gone bad with the Heatway systems, the tubes have eroded and leaked.