With a century of plumbing expertise behind it, Instantor has expanded into underfloor heating (UFH) with a seven-system portfolio designed to cover everything from newbuild screeded floors to retrofit projects.
But, as UK Sales Director Dan Wild explains, the launch is about more than adding another product category. It forms part of Instantor’s wider push towards complete systems, better installer training and greater confidence around compliance.
Instantor has marked its 100th anniversary with a significant expansion of its UK offering, launching a comprehensive new hydronic UFH portfolio.
For a company already well established in pipe, fittings, manifolds and water movement technology, underfloor heating might appear an obvious next step.
Wild said: “Underfloor heating is kind of a natural evolution of what we’ve done. We’ve produced the pipe for years, we’ve got manifolds in our range, and we have pumps in the Sanbra Group portfolio. People tell us,‘You’ve got the expertise in it, why aren’t you doing it?’”
The resulting UFH portfolio comprises seven systems covering a wide variety of floor constructions and applications. Instantor’s Staple-PRO, Rail-PRO and Castel-PRO systems have been developed for screed and solid floor installations, while Cem-PRO, Foil-PRO and Pocket-PRO are aimed at overlay and retrofit applications. ChipDeck-PRO completes the range, providing a solution for suspended floors.
Customers can choose between PEX-AL-PEX and PERT-EVOH-PERT pipe systems, both backed by a 50-year guarantee, alongside wired and wireless programmable and smart thermostatic controls, sensors, wiring centres, manifolds, mixing valves, pumps and accessories.
Facing UFH challenges
Instantor sees this new opportunity as going beyond simply supplying the individual components. One of the challenges with UFH, particularly for plumbers moving into the sector, is understanding how the system interacts with the wider building. Pipework may be familiar territory, but selecting the correct floor solution, accounting for the building fabric and bringing the different elements together requires another level of knowledge.
That is an area where Instantor believes it can make a difference, providing the complete system rather than leaving installers to bridge the gaps between products and building requirements.
The company is supporting this new range with a free design and specification service, providing installers, merchants and specifiers with installation-ready designs and heat-loss calculations, which are professionally indemnified.
Training, not just products
That emphasis on support fits into a much wider approach to installer training within the business.
Instantor has invested heavily in training, including dedicated full-time trainers, and plans to develop that model further in the UK. The company has also introduced a demonstration van that effectively operates as a mobile training centre.
Supporting installers
For Wild and the Instantor team, the need to provide comprehensive installer support reflects the realities facing many plumbers, particularly smaller businesses.
Technical guidance and regulatory changes can be difficult to interpret for people who spend most of their working day on site rather than studying technical documents. Instantor sees an opportunity to translate that information into practical advice that tells installers not simply what they cannot do, but what they should do instead.
This becomes increasingly relevant as smaller plumbing businesses move into larger commercial projects and high-density residential developments, where requirements around areas such as Part B and Part L can become more complex. “What we want to do is have the plumbers feel equipped to come to us and ask us questions and get what we feel is going to be the right answer every time,” Wild said.
That approach also includes competency training, with installers receiving identification confirming the training they have undertaken. For contractors, it provides evidence that they have been trained to work with the systems involved. For clients, specifiers and engineers, it offers another level of reassurance around competence.
Speed and compliance
“The only commodity a plumber has to trade is time,” Wild said.“We want to give them more value out of their hour with a quicker, more reliable product that, once installed, can be forgotten about. The installer can focus on getting paid and moving on in the knowledge that there’s a leading warranty hanging over it and they know they’ve got a trusted brand sitting behind them.”
The discussion around underfloor heating forms part of a much broader conversation taking place across plumbing and heating about product quality, installer competence and regulatory compliance.
"WE WANT PLUMBERS TO FEEL EQUIPPED TO COME TO US AND ASK QUESTIONS, AND GET THE RIGHT ANSWER EVERY TIME.
Instantor has been addressing the same issues elsewhere in its portfolio. One example is its move towards lead-free solutions for potable water applications.
The company launched lead-free brass fittings in the UK in March 2025 and made a conscious decision to price them at the same level as its standard brass products.
“We want plumbers to do the right thing, and if price is a barrier, let’s just get rid of it,” Wild explained.“Let people see that there’s no difference between lead-free brass and normal brass and get them comfortable with it.”
Instantor has since developed a range using PPSU, a high-performance polymer capable of dealing with high pressures, temperatures and stresses, offering another route to lead-free potable water installations.
For Wild, these developments point towards a wider issue: products cannot be separated from the quality of the installation or the knowledge of the person fitting them.
He is particularly concerned about inconsistencies within the supply chain and the absence of minimum standards governing some products entering the UK market. In his view, improving installer skills needs to be matched by greater scrutiny of the products those installers are being asked to fit.
Instantor is placing much emphasis on the combination of product, technical knowledge, design and training as it expands.
Instantor entered the UK market in 2024, despite a corporate history stretching back to 1926, and has grown from just two purchasing locations to around 700 today.
Rather than pursuing distribution at any cost, the focus has been on working with merchants that the company believes it can properly support.
Underfloor heating now represents the next stage of that development. Instantor Product Manager for Underfloor Heating Jim Stafford described the move as a “natural progression”, drawing on the company’s existing expertise in pipe, fittings and pumping technology. The portfolio has been “designed for installers by installers”, with ease of fitting and reliability at its heart.
For plumbers facing changing heating technologies, tighter building standards and growing expectations around system performance, that combination of product and practical support could prove every bit as significant as the new systems themselves. instantor.co.uk