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Hickory, NC
So I got baptized by a hot water pipe leak 1day into my new house, turns out it's full of dura pex that has known leaking problems by the water heater and used primarily in a few counties here in NC, joy. It was a pin hole leak in the top of the pipe which is how they fail, it's in a "shop" and not rubbing on anything or exposed to extreme temps or UV light. I cut and spliced it and fixed the leak, but I'm going to rip out all that terra cotta colored shit that I can access, about 40ft of it of various sizes. I'm a total newb to this pex crap as we couldnt even use it up north, copper only. I bought the expensive ass crimping tools, but looking for some IBB advice on the do's and dont's with this stuff, what kind of connectors (plastic or brass) stuff like that.
pic of the offending dura pex stuff and where I spliced in to fix the leak.
IMG_20201212_131105221.jpg
 
Brass fittings, order the pex online in rolls, support it more often than you think you need to. SS crimp rings work fine and only take a $70 crimper to use.
 
larboc said:
Brass fittings, order the pex online in rolls, support it more often than you think you need to. SS crimp rings work fine and only take a $70 crimper to use.
Click to expand...

Any specific spec of PEX I should be looking for, they have A B and C right? Any real pros and cons?
 
I'm about half way through replacing all the gray Polybutylene in our house. In that the plastic fittings usually fail especially if in tension from bends. Had a hot line blow on the second floor and leak into the kitchen below while we were on vacation. 10 hours of hot water until our animal sitters found it. First floor was a mess. Got a whole new kitchen and hardwood floors out of it though! :homer:

A friend is a plumber. He makes it look easy. Not sure what brand but he uses all brass fittings. If you want to be fancy use red lines for hot and white for cold. You have already bought the tools so my advice to buy side opening crimpers is late. My front openers get in the way of existing pipe/wiring where his side openers did not.

Buy the pex in straight runs instead of coil. Much easier to work with.

Put in 1/4 turn valves at every fixture. The seals were dying on the ones that we had from 1988...Run stainless flex lines to fixture from there.

I've heard that running to a common manifold is better for water pressure.
 
Lay it all out and assemble it in place before making the first crimp. That way you can make sure you dont work yourself into a corner and have to make a crimp in an inaccessible area. If you can assemble any complex sections ahead of time and then do the last couple of crimps in place. The stuff is cheap enough you can cut it long and trim it to fit as you go. Pex cutters are nice to have but a razor knife will do.
 
From my experience re-plumbing a good portion of my house with pex:

Pex B is what you want for the crimp stuff. You can use A, but it is more expensive and mainly meant for the expansion joint fittings which require $$$$ tools. I don't think C is really used much anymore.

If you plan on future upgrades or additions put a manifold in. Makes things 100x easier later on.

The stuff is super easy to work with. If you are doing long runs and have room just buy a coil of it and make long sweeps for turns. Short repair stuff just buy sticks. Buy fittings online, they are pricey at the box stores.
 
alk1174 said:
Lay it all out and assemble it in place before making the first crimp. That way you can make sure you dont work yourself into a corner and have to make a crimp in an inaccessible area. If you can assemble any complex sections ahead of time and then do the last couple of crimps in place. The stuff is cheap enough you can cut it long and trim it to fit as you go. Pex cutters are nice to have but a razor knife will do.
Click to expand...

I was planning on installing all the new stuff in the ceiling then just hooking it up once it's all in place, that way the hot water is only off for a few mins. I have an unlimited tool budget for this project so I already have the cutters lol! I like the valve idea others have floated, I like being able to shut off sections of the house if I spring a leak or do some work, we can still use everything else.

​​​​​​
 
larboc said:
Brass fittings, order the pex online in rolls, support it more often than you think you need to. SS crimp rings work fine and only take a $70 crimper to use.
Click to expand...

No, the brass fittings suck and will fail over time. I make a pretty good living changing them out. It doesn't make any sense to remove all of the metal that can corrode from a system only to add it back in. The plastic fittings with stainless steel crimp rings are the way to go.

This a pretty good summary on the A vs B vs C debate http://www.apollovalves.com/article/pex-a-b-or-c-understanding-the-differences The only A pex you can readily buy (that I can think of) in the states is Wirsbo/Uponor
 
I was a noob and did my water filter and softener with pex. Super easy to work with if you got the right tools. Only problem I had was being able to fit the tool where I needed it so plan it out. I got both type crimp rings and tools.

Put valves wherever you can.
 
Nubicon said:
No, the brass fittings suck and will fail over time. I make a pretty good living changing them out. It doesn't make any sense to remove all of the metal that can corrode from a system only to add it back in. The plastic fittings with stainless steel crimp rings are the way to go.

This a pretty good summary on the A vs B vs C debate http://www.apollovalves.com/article/pex-a-b-or-c-understanding-the-differences The only A pex you can readily buy (that I can think of) in the states is Wirsbo/Uponor
Click to expand...

I'd never heard of the brass fittings failing, is it only with certain water sources?

These are the plastic fittings I've heard of breaking. I'd guess it's only an issue when installed by ham fist that puts it under stress.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin...726eXabcbwYAUwYQheX2s4hU3k7_DpmRoCCZIQAvD_BwE
 
larboc said:
I'd never heard of the brass fittings failing, is it only with certain water sources?

These are the plastic fittings I've heard of breaking. I'd guess it's only an issue when installed by ham fist that puts it under stress.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin-...RoCCZIQAvD_BwE
Click to expand...

I ordered some 1-1/4 pex fittings from Supplyhouse.com yesterday around noon. Hour later got shipping confirmation and a delivery date for tomorrow. Impressed with them so far.
 
Supplyhouse rocks for selection and pricing.

I redid my house with all expansion pex. The tool costs some but its nearly idiot proof to make the joints. Used all plastic and havent had any failures, but I also supported them well and dont have a bunch of stress on the fittings.

The most annoying part of pex is the the valves at the end devices. You can either poke pex right through to the valve - works fine but its ugly or you can do the copper adapers, but that's a lot more work and money, plus then you have to either sweat the valves or compression fittings that suck.
 
kf4zht said:
The most annoying part of pex is the the valves at the end devices. You can either poke pex right through to the valve - works fine but its ugly or you can do the copper adapers, but that's a lot more work and money, plus then you have to either sweat the valves or compression fittings that suck.
Click to expand...

why valves at the end of runs?
I'd think to put the valves at the start of runs, but I'm also the sort of autistic that'd do manifolds in the basement with individual unjointed runs to each fixture
 
Timely thread I want to redo the double wide. Any thoughts on insulation of pex, If I do this it would have to be under the sagging insulation under house because I wouldn't want to disturb the mice living in it:flipoff2:
 
larboc said:
Brass fittings, order the pex online in rolls, support it more often than you think you need to. SS crimp rings work fine and only take a $70 crimper to use.
Click to expand...

This but spend the extra $10 to get the expander and use expansion fittings instead of crimp fittings. It's way handier in tight spaces and when working alone since you can expand a pipe then put the tools down and use both hands to make the connection..

Edit: $73 for the tool with dies. At that price nobody should be buying a crimper.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PEX-Expans...2-3-4-1-Expander-Heads-Hard-Case/142697277045

s-l1600.jpg
 
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I'm definitely not a plumber and used PEX in my old house with zero previous experience - I didn't crimp anything either, I used SharkBite fittings.
Copper pipe was really expensive at the time but I already had a few sticks laying around - so I decided to use my copper down the walls to new 1/4 turn compression valves and used 3/4" PEX (type B?) for the 60-70ft long runs across the attic. SharkBite fittings were kinda new on the market at the time and if they were good enough to use in submarine applications, they'd be good enough for my janky DIY plumbing job on the transitions vs crimping -- this was back in like 2007 and no leaks on anything.
 
larboc said:
I'd never heard of the brass fittings failing, is it only with certain water sources?

These are the plastic fittings I've heard of breaking. I'd guess it's only an issue when installed by ham fist that puts it under stress.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin-...RoCCZIQAvD_BwE
Click to expand...

In my area it's almost always on well water. And in this part of PA that means slightly to very acidic, usually at least some iron, and more often than not a hardness issue. So it is without a doubt tough on metals. Here are a couple examples of what I typically find with brass fittings (and it is worth noting that this happens within a few years)

https://photos.google.com/search/_tr...GIXfqiuIYwmyls


https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...tOPiS_qANwwa5C
 
I re plumbed our home with PEX, bought by the roll. Crimp rings or shark bites, super pleased with it and it doesn't get any easier.
 
Not sure how much of it you will do in the future but I bought the 18v Ryobi crimper and I can't say enough good things about it. One being you can run it one handed! and it get's into tight places. I hate those big bolt cutter style tools!
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-18...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
ETA: go a size bigger than you think you need because the fitting really neck the size down.
 
Nubicon said:
In my area it's almost always on well water. And in this part of PA that means slightly to very acidic, usually at least some iron, and more often than not a hardness issue. So it is without a doubt tough on metals. Here are a couple examples of what I typically find with brass fittings (and it is worth noting that this happens within a few years)

https://photos.google.com/search/_tr...GIXfqiuIYwmyls


https://photos.google.com/album/AF1Q...tOPiS_qANwwa5C
Click to expand...

This...

I work in the water industry in NE Pa. and I can vouch for the brass failing in a few years. Even damp areas have them turning green within months. I do mostly short runs and have moved to stainless fittings with good success.
 
[486 said:
;n237594]

god I fucking hate cpvc :flipoff2:
Click to expand...

You and me both. Shit gets real brittle after a few years. Ask me how I know. ...I hated it before that knowledge as well.
 
Project done for now. I used a combo of the copper crimp rings and those cv crimp looking crimp things for the tight spaces. Leak free for now! Those brackets that force the pipe into a 90 are a bitch!! Thanks for all the advice as always!
 
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