PEX Pipes

[shazapple]

Call me old fashioned but I'm a copper guy. I keep thinking in ten more years they will realize PEX leaches bad chemicals into the water.

As long as pipes are run on interior walls, freezing should not be an issue.

That said, even though I will continue to use copper, I can't really find anything wrong with the stuff. It is certainly easier to install.

Most of our house is plumbed in PEX, except for the kitchen which we did in copper. I'm hedging my bets

[phil]

it is easy to install and run, plumbers love it. We have a summer house and cabin that we shut down for the winter. we have to make sure to blow out the water lines and put RV antifreeze in the drains and stuff. it gets complicated, things like the pump in the washer will crack. toilet basins, sink traps, the trap under the showers, the list goes on. every year we have repairs, areas where water was sitting in low areas and cracked pipes in the spring.

If you run hard copper , it should be done in such a way that the water from the whole building can be drained in the event that the water system has to be shut down during freezing weather. Using pex inevitably seems to prevent being able to drain the system as the flexability causes dips and sags.
I know it can take a freeze, but repetitive freezing maybe not?

anyone else have pex and have to shut the system down periodically?

[jschneider]

I've used PEX in the past and it certainly is easy to install as well as cheap.

That said, I just can't get it to LOOK nice... I know that sounds crazy... but I love me some nice orderly copper. OCD? Maybe... but I am what I am.

[Sacto Diane (WavyGlass)]

In my last couple of remodels I used pex but I asked the plumber to do a hybrid approach. All the the plumbing runs are pex but all the branches in the wall are copper. He liked that approach as he could do the long runs in the basement and do the final connections in copper.



Above is my kitchen remodel. The connections shown are all copper but the plumbing runs to this point are pex. I don't have a pic of the pex in the basement.

Diane

[Greg (WavyGlass)]

In my last couple of remodels I used pex but I asked the plumber to do a hybrid approach. All the the plumbing runs are pex but all the branches in the wall are copper. He liked that approach as he could do the long runs in the basement and do the final connections in copper.....

Diane

Why?

[Neighmond]

I thought of PEX, but I wasn't too convinced in 2009 when most of my plumbing was done. My house has plumbing so compact that copper just made sense, and I already know how to solder and didn't have to buy the tools and such to do it. I am .75" copper from the meter to the hot water heater, and to the point where the cold line bifurcates to the bathroom and kitchen/laundry taps, and .5" thence to the fixtures.

Anytime I am gone in the winter more than overnight I just shut the street valve and open the tub and meter taps-what little water left in the system is in the water heater and stretches unlikely to freeze.

Believe it or not, what freezing I did have take place this winter was under the yard and not in the house!

[Texas_Ranger]

Call me old fashioned but I'm a copper guy. I keep thinking in ten more years they will realize PEX leaches bad chemicals into the water.

Yup!
Our water did smell and taste funny for almost 6 months after we got PEX!

OTOH copper isn't too awfully healthy either and if you have acidic water you get really nasty reactions and toxic chemicals in the water. I've seen that once with well water and every tub/shower/sink turned blue-green. Not good!

Among all plastics I've heard of, polyethylene seems to be the least problematic. I don't like new materials in critical applications as a rule though - copper plumbing pipe has been around here for more than 50 years, so I'd say it has stood the test of time provided it's properly soldered.

In the larger cities here they still haven't managed to get rid of all of the soft lead plumbing! Especially risers in multi-family buildings are rarely ever replaced at all because you have to tear up all apartments at the same time and at least some tenants usually run amok.