Taws the night after Christmas

Tenet called to say something was amiss in the bathroom at the farm house. I Tender my boots, fire up the red pickem-up-truck, and fly to the scene. Crashing through drifts I plow up the drive and find the place empty. Upon inspection I determine there be a leak behind the tub faucet. Since it is all sealed up in the wall I have to remove a fairly large piece of the bedroom wall. Not fixable to night. Taped off the faucet and hung a note.

Side note;

If I ever meet the fella who invented pex I going to kick him square in the nuts. This house is less than ten years old and I have had a plumbing failure every year since including the one 3 days after we moved in. Going to rip all that chit out and sweat me some copper........

I have pex and allthough not pretty I have never had a problem,never a leak or a rupture.

(quoted from post at 03:45:32 12/27/10) I have pex and allthough not pretty I have never had a problem,never a leak or a rupture.

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Same here ,altho it has only been 2 years so far.

In Omaha, the plumbing code will not allow PEX! Can't say I am disappointed.

what kind of pipe is PEX. i have copper.
no problem.

hammer man

(quoted from post at 05:59:51 12/27/10) what kind of pipe is PEX. i have copper.
no problem.

hammer man

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Pex is a plastic pipe. Thet push it because it is easy to bend around corners without fittings and where you do need fittings you just use a crimping tool to install them.

Didn't realize that.

I do insurance inspections in the Lincoln area, and I'm seeing a lot of PEX on new construction.

In fact, my own house is 11 years old, has all PEX, and I've never had a problem.

I had PEX used in my shop when we closed it in ten years ago. After about three years I had a water leak in every wall. I finally removed all of the inter sheeting and replace all of the PEX with heavy copper. I have not had a leak since. I refuse to ever own another building with it in it.

Where I am worried is that my son has a new shop, less than a year old. He put in hot water heat in the floor. It uses fitting that are just like the PEX ones. I am afraid of what will happen down the road.

My niece just bought a town house with real Pex brand piping in the walls, and low....there was a small leak. Her Dad, a licensed plumber began tearing into walls until he found the seeping plastic tubing. It seems to have failed along its manufactured seam. He cut out the offending part of tube and submitted it to the Pex company for inspection and lab analysis. Suprisingly, they found some chemical substance in their factory seam and declared it a manufacturing defect. He was suprised to find they have a 30 year warantee which includes labor and materials, including the peripheral damage. There are other manufacturers making "pex" tubing that have no warantee, and some of it is coming from China.

So if you have real Pex, the company is a stand up operation (as he sees it). The look-alike brands are very questionable. And there is no warantee on copper piping (and for decades there didn't need to be, it was a rock solid product, but now they are using a thinner copper that is springing leaks frequently).

FWIW....

Paul in MN

I had pex pipes intalled in Farmhouse. Three years ago I was burned out of it in Feb with 20" of snow on Valentine day. Fire co shut off electric to house. The pex line froze from the size of a nickle to size quarter. Wow! did not leak. But no big deal or savings for me, since the house was full of water from the fire.

Hummm.....

I did some digging just for's and it seems there is a problem with PEX plumbing, Actually it is in the fittings (where all my problems have been). If you have PEX and brass fititngs were used, you may want to have it inspected. Specifically the fittings.

Seems they stress fracture at the crimp and fail over time.

I know what I will be doing tonight.......
Zurn fitting failures

I just Googled it because I did not know what it was. But a few years ago I almost bought a farm from some Amish, and the house had Pex run through out it that they just installed so they could make it appealing to non-Amish. At the time I just thought it was AG hose that they plumbed through a house because was easier to deal with then sweating in new copper. Down in the root cellar where it all split out was something else. Couple of big splitter trunks that shot like 10 blue and 10 red out to their destinations, outside of walls, inside of walls. I figured them Amish that installed it must've been drunk at the time. I didn't but that place, but not for that reason. So...that's Pex? Hmm? Must be code in Elkhart County, IN. is all I have to say. The place I have now don't have it.

By the way, that was the first time I ever seen a propane powered refridgerator as well. Them Amish can use propane refridges, just not Pex powered faucets, or any of the elctrical outlets. Thay can have them, not use them. Gotta use hand pumped wells and lanterns and wood or coal burners. Now that I think about it, I don't remember that house having a furnace, but the refridge was going with the Amish family after they sold and moved, cause they are allowed to use those.

Mark

Pex is all the rage in new construction right now. They really love it on This Old House show too.

Pex is not inherently evil, typically it's the installer who is at fault. Pex with the crimp rings needs to have the crimping tool properly adjusted and even then there is some "feel" to get it right. Wirsbo Aquapex uses an expansion tool to that is near idiot proof. Joints can be visually inspected to see if it's right. I have 30 years experience and have installed 100's of houses with no failures. We have areas that the water is slightly acidic and will destroy copper in a few years.
Back in the day they used polybutelyne piping. That was a disaster. Are you sure that it's PEX your having trouble with and not the polybutelyne?

I remember back in the day when the old timers who threaded water pipe thought copper was junk and would never last.
Those of us bought up installing copper thought CPVC was junk, I still do. Pex is alot better that CPVC

I have had pex for 6 years now and no problems. There are several types of pex tubing. Pex, Pex-AL-Pex (Has aluminum inbeded in it) Oxygen Barrier Pex, and there my be more. Each one is used for a certain application.