PEX pipe potential problems, please pontify (1 Viewer)

[gladly]

just wondering, I am moving my washer, old assed POS house , mostly done with flexible copper, (really, for the waterlines!) any downside to going with PEX, ordinarily would have done rigid (sweated) copper, but the plastic is a lot cheaper, and looks easy, found a couple of sites that made it look bad on the web but they were from homepages like copperrules dot com and I heart copper dot ca , probably biased methinks only mud references were (I think romer?) using it for infloor heating, not so relevant given the concrete encasing. anyone used this for the day to day hookups, tub, shower, laundry. thanks for the input and sorry for the alliteration (sp?)

 

[-Spike-]

Curious, what's wrong with flexible copper? Cost, or is there a potential for disaster?

-Spike

 

[gladly]

flexible copper was about 100.00 for 50 feet, PEX was 34.95 for 100 ft, probably nothing wrong with flexi-copper, the rest of the house is plumbed with it, and seems to work OK , but if I can save 65.00 on the run I need to do, well that's a whole lot of to get the job done

 

[gladly]

btw the potential problem with PEX mentioned on the copper fan sites was that if it had significant UV exposure it would go to s*** very quickly (ie warehousing with insufficient uv protection prior to consumer purchase)
http://www.ccbda.org/pdfs/41E.pdf#search="pex pipe"
http://www.ccbda.org/publications/pub41e/41e.htm
were the sites I had googled
apparently PEX is used in the majority of new home construction (up here) so i will probably go that route, but if anyone (on mud) has horror stories to tell, I guess I'd rather hear them now
cheers

 

[Texx]

Pex is fine, you shouldn't have problems with it. Used almost exclusively in new home construction in New Mexico now.

 

[Degnol]

Pex got a bad name early on due to the failure of connectors. That has been resolved. I used 900' of Pex in the slab of my garage for radiant heating, but the contractor was adamant about no connectors buried in the concrete. We ran three loops to a manifold. No leaks.

GL

Ed

 

[stanley]

pex is nice because you can run the pipe anywhere quickly and easily. the end crimpier is something like $200. the copper guys hate it because it takes away all the labor hours in a big job.

 

[yooper]

PEX is better. The only place I'd worry about the UV exposure is at the retail store where you're buying it. Everyone else upstream in the supply line takes care of it.

 

[albee]

Just because you can buy it does not mean it is legal. In MA. it is not. Neither is doing your own plumbing. On the positive side I think it is a great product, and I have about 5000' of in my house for radiant heat. Here you can do your own heating , but not plumbing.

 

[yooper]

meh... legal shmegal

 

[srplus]

if it is a POS house why bother with either?

Why not use good old cheap PVC? You can prolly buy enough to do the whole job and even add an additional hose bib somewhere for less than you can buy the crimper tool for.

 

[45Kevin]

You can rent the tool from the HD for about $6 per day. Some of the tools can do both 3/4 and 1/2. The Poly-B was really bad for breaking down under UV but I have not heard anything bad about PEX. It is realy a DYI product for anyone. There is a newer product that is PEX with an aluminum liner / layer in there somewhere. I have never used that stuff so have no thoughts about it yet.

Good Luck

Alternate plan,
Chuck the washer and use laundromat. Put beer fridge in space now taken by washer. Cap off water line.

 

[LukeZero]

Why not use good old cheap PVC? You can prolly buy enough to do the whole job and even add an additional hose bib somewhere for less than you can buy the crimper tool for.

Because PVC is rated for cold only, CPVC could be used for hot. PEX is fine but PEX/Al/PEX is better, holds a bend and doesn't look like crap in any exposed locations. Also, some PEX can be used with a combination insert/compression fitting, saving the rental or purchase of a crimper.

My favorite method is the elastic rings from Wirsbo, stretch the ring out, put it over the pipe, put the pipe on the insert fitting and watch the ring shrink back to its original size.

PM me if you want more info.

Luke Lefever
Lefever Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
www.lefeverph.com
1-800-201-8709

 

[Leaping Deer]

If you are going to use PEX go to a plumbing supply house. I heard that the stuff Home Depot sells is the lower of the 3 grades....... Or at least thats what I was told from a plumber.

 

[Jetboy]

Pex is the answer. I remodeled and did everything in pex. So much cheaper than copper. You can get copper stubouts if you want so it will use all the std. valves or use pex stubs. It's much better in earthquakes, reduces waterhammer, and is less likely to break if frozen. IMO it is the only way to go. You can put everything together and rent a crimper at the end for about $5/day. It's so much easier to run too, holes dont have to be perfectly aligned and you dont fight to get it in. Plus the red and blue are just cool!

 

[yooper]

Why not use good old cheap PVC? You can prolly buy enough to do the whole job and even add an additional hose bib somewhere for less than you can buy the crimper tool for.

IH8PVC!

don't get me started on that crap

 

[Franky40]

If you are concerned about the pex. there is also a new copper system with crimped fittings that is being used more and more in commercial buildings

 

[Franky40]

When we built our building three years ago, they did everthing in pex except the manifold. No leaks, no complaints.

 

[LukeZero]

If you are concerned about the pex. there is also a new copper system with crimped fittings that is being used more and more in commercial buildings

ProPress. Its used everyday in residential buildings as well as commercial and industrial. But the pressing machine is very expensive. We got our cordless machine for 1/2", 3/4" and 1" about 6 months ago and on special it was over $1400 USD. I don't know if you could borrow or rent one for an afternoon.

 

[brian]

Curious, what's wrong with flexible copper? Cost, or is there a potential for disaster?

-Spike

it just looks like poo when compared to hard copper or plastic.