Has anyone ever use Quick Trak panels? Could it be possible to make something similar with plywood and insulating foil?

Sure, i made some simply by cutting 8' lengths 7" wide with a 45 degree angle and used aluminum flashing underneath, it worked great. I bought the return bends but I will try routing them nest time. Bob Gagnon

Thanks Bob! So just plain aluminum flashing? Did you put the flashing over the whole sub floor, or just under the pipe? How did you secure the pipe to the floor? With sealant like quik trak?

If you're going to build a panel, don't emulate an underpowered panel like quik trak. splurge on some lightweight plates, use some pex-al-pex, and do a real sandwich (picture attached). you'll beat quik trak's performance for something like less than half the price (plus some labor). Or you can really juice it up using heavy gauge plates, adds a bit of price, but really gets those water temps down.

Rob,

thanks for the picture, but I'm confused. Splurge on lightweight plates? Plates of what? By real sandwich do you mean that the metal goes under the tubing like in the picture, or that you'll sandwich between two plywood panels?
Also, if the setup is like in the picture, do you just tile right over that? As you can tell I'm not very knowledgeable about radiant set up.
Thanks for your help.

those are lightweight aluminum plates. PEX-AL-PEX doesn't expand much and reduces noise issues. those plates form around the pipe, so pipe to aluminum contact is good and the aluminum conducts out ON TOP of the plywood, where it should be, not underneath like it is with quik trak.

there are a thousand ways to tile over that assembly, but the most common is probably to thinset right over it. what you end up doing depends on who is laying the tile as much as anything else. a cement board can go over it, or an exterior glue plywood with isolation membrane over that... lots of options.

Cement board IS the standard.