So I am going to run new plumbing in the old house and I would like to use PEX. There are so many options out there which brand should I go with and why? Shark bite fittings are to expensive for my taste.

Thanks
Nate
 
Yes shark bites are a real expensive way to do it when you need a lot of fittinsg. My Outside wood boiler set up was run with 1" Zurn pipe, fittings and clamp tool almost 10 years ago and I have had zero problems with any of it. This was prior to the pinch clamp type. It has the cooper rings.
 
I've done all PEX in two houses. Love it. I will not use Sharkbite fittings. I tried a couple initially and had them leak. I use the metal fittings with the crimp rings. I'm too tight for the good tool, so I did them all with the tool you clamp together with pliers. I actually used a big vise grips so I could pinch it with it partial, unlatch it and tighten a turn, and then do it again. Worked better for tired hands. The tool I use is two pieces of metal that have holes for the crimp rings - it looks a lot like a flaring tool but heavier steel. It also has a guage so you can make sure it is crimped enough. In all of the years I have never once had one of those fittings leak.

My hint is to go to a store that has blue and red PEX line and use it for hot and cold. If you ever need to work on a line you will never question which it is.
 
When we had a slab leak under the garage, I hired an experienced plumber who works alone(after hiring one who brought in a crew that could not fix the leak. The experienced plumber replaced and re-routed the leaking line using PEX and the solid ring clamps. I was impressed with the PEX, and I plan to use it for all line replacement inside the house from now on.
Butch
 
Neighbor has a double wide, manufactured home. It was plumbed with pex and solid ring. A fitting leaked. I was lucky to find the parts I needed at a mobile home supply place. Not sure how old his pex was, but it was very brittle. I wasn't sure I was going to fix the leak.

I am more impressed with how well sharkbite is made. I used it to install my boy's hot water heater. We had to connect to hard copper. Used the braided flex hose to connect to water heater and sharkbite was on the other end to go in the copper.

I've used the old quest, pex, sharkbite, copper, and cpvc to plumb. If you want to save money use cpvc. I've had fewer problem years later with cpvc than quest and pex.

If I recall the selling point for using quest was that it could freeze and not break the pipe, true, but what they didn't tell you freezing would damage the fittings. Quest went out of business because the fittings leaked.
 
Did my whole house with pex and re-did mhy parent's house with pex. Theirs was copper (installed '71) and the pipes started to develop pinhole leaks (not at fittings and joints but on straight runs) after the 5th or 6th one, drying and sweating, we decided to rip everything out and replace with PEX.
So far, in both places, plus a couple bathrooms here and there, PEX has been easy to install, change.
We use the pex with the metal crimp rings and a zurn brand crimp tool. Make sure you use a go/nogo gauge to ensure you have crimped. The best part of pex is, if you turn the water on and there is a leak...30 seconds to fix. Do that with copper.
As far as shark bite goes...used my first one 6 years ago in my in-laws basement where we added a bathroom. Did not like the location for sweating a T, since it was an open basement, we decided that Sharkbite would be ok...worst comes to worst, it fails and we replace it. This is back when sharkbites were labeled "temporary use only", So far, it is problem free.

Just a pex tip, especially for bathroom shower installations, it might be worth using 3/4" pex in places where you would use 1/2" copper as the ID of pex is smaller than the ID of copper.
 
We used CPVC to re-plumb our entire house almost 30 years ago and like the PEX it also has been totally trouble free. This was of course prior to the internet where a person can read horror stories about any product made.
I often wonder how many of the "product problems" are actually installation problems.
 
I bought some knockoff fittings, called gator bites at Lowes. I had a couple of problems, including one leak. I swapped out to a real Sharkbite, and the leak went away. Also the gator bites had the plastic tube inside fall out. It won't work without it.
 
I just finished using PEX fittings,tubing and this tool......first time ever using PEX.
Is PEX easy to install.....Yes
Is PEX reliable in the long run of usage.....?
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Nate, I plumbed my house with pex in 2006 and not a leak yet. I bought the ring crimp tool that does 1/2 and 3/4 rings. I wish where I bought mine had the red and blue pex for hot and cold, that sounds like a good idea. I used 2-6 port manifolds (picture) for cold, and a 6 port and 4 port for hot, that way I can shut off individual lines in the basement, as well as the shut offs at the far end. NOTHING gets kids out of the shower faster than turning off the hot water. :)

Mike
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About 45 years ago, I re-plumbed our old house with CPVC, it had galvanized pipe in it.
I used some 1/2" along with 3/4". I soon learned that you can't support 1/2" enough, especially if when it's used for hot water.
We moved to a new to us, a couple years ago. It has hard copper plumbing, I wish it had CPVC.

Remember that if you use PEX be sure that sun light can't shine it, even thru a window.

Dusty
 
I've run miles of Wirsbo Aquapex. It uses an expansion tool that is near idiot proof. I quick glance can verify a correct joint. A new apprentice is nearly an expert with it after a quick lesson.

The problem with the crimp rings is getting the correct tension. The tool has to be adjusted correctly and the operator has to put the right muscle into it. You can use gauge that you can use to check rings. Too much going on. Takes some "feel" to get the hang of it.
 

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