Home

[Tigriss]

Pex is the standard now since you can do repair easier, run the plumbing faster, and shut off the water to various parts of the house, while leaving it on in others. It will vary due to the climate of the area around the house, but I imagine the install and mateials have a warranty for a period of time.

Plumbing in a concrete foundation doesn't tend to leak as the concrete seals around the pipe, but it can, though leaks generally occur above the concrete.

[gardenman]

PEX is cross linked polyethylene and has a great reputation. The good news is there's no scrap value to it so vandals are less likely to break in to steal it. It's a bit pricey to install, but faster and easier to install so the extra cost kind of balances out. It's been used overseas forever and I don't know of any long term negatives to it.

[Lilysmom]

I recall a discussion with my brother about Pex plumbing.  He is a plumber.  I would be checking with my insurance company before I took on a place with that installed or before I installed it in my home.  I am in Canada.  There have been class action lawsuits because of failures with this type of plumbing.  My knowledge is not detailed as it was awhile ago but if you google class actions, pex plumbing, you will see the info.  LM

[151949]

@Nightowlz  My experience - I don't know if all plastic pipes are this particular one but we do have plastic pipes.Our house is built on a slab foundation in Florida.Before the foundation was poured they put the plumbing in and brought up the pipes. Then we had to pay a exterminator to come and treat the soil for ground termites before they poured the concrete. They said over time the wiggling of the pipes as the water goes through erodes the concrete around them and termites or ants will invade your home through the cracks.YIKES. So we chose to pay to treat the ground.They warrantied this for 10 years. Some of our neighbors who chose not to do this have had horrors like having ants coming up from the grate while they are showering.We continued with the company that did the spraying and have our house treated for insects. I don't know how anyone can live in Florida and not have an insect service.

[gardenman]

---

@Lilysmom wrote:

I recall a discussion with my brother about Pex plumbing.  He is a plumber.  I would be checking with my insurance company before I took on a place with that installed or before I installed it in my home.  I am in Canada.  There have been class action lawsuits because of failures with this type of plumbing.  My knowledge is not detailed as it was awhile ago but if you google class actions, pex plumbing, you will see the info.  LM

---

I just did a bit of Googling and the problems that some seem to have seem to largely stem from Zurn fittings used with PEX, and improper installation of the PEX. Like with pretty much everything, you need a good installer for PEX and apparently there are a lot of really careless installers out there. 

When it comes to leaks, copper isn't leakproof. Christmas morning found me in the basement fixing a leaking copper fitting. In the 58 years I've lived here, I've pretty much replaced 80% of the copper plumbing in the house. We have a well with galvanized pipe for the well, and tiny little pieces of that galvinzed pipe and tiny little pieces of the metal impeller and pump impreller housing will, with wear and tear, come off and enter the water supply, settling along the bottom of the copper tubing. The two types of metal in contact with one another supposedly sets up a galvanic reaction that slowly, but surely eats away at the copper until it can no longer handle the pressure and you've got a leak. Our water chemistry (ph around 6.0) doesn't help matters either.

If I had the money to do so, I'd replace all of my copper with PEX and run a dedicated line from the manifold to each appliance/outlet. The PEX pipe isn't terribly expensive but installing it properly requires some specialized tools that would have to be bought and there would be some trial and error initially, but long term, I suspect it would be better than the copper given our water issues.

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman, we did comparison on home insurance quotes when we thought our provider was getting high.  One of the questions that kept coming up was whether or not we had Pex (we don't.).  That prompted the discussion with my brother about the issue.

With all new things, there is a learning period and some unknown.  As it becomes more common, I assume some of these issues will become moot. I don't usually like to be the first one to try something brand new, particularly when it comes to my home.  Tried and true is my preference.  LM

[Nightowlz]

---

@gardenman wrote:

---

@Lilysmom wrote:

I recall a discussion with my brother about Pex plumbing.  He is a plumber.  I would be checking with my insurance company before I took on a place with that installed or before I installed it in my home.  I am in Canada.  There have been class action lawsuits because of failures with this type of plumbing.  My knowledge is not detailed as it was awhile ago but if you google class actions, pex plumbing, you will see the info.  LM

---

I just did a bit of Googling and the problems that some seem to have seem to largely stem from Zurn fittings used with PEX, and improper installation of the PEX. Like with pretty much everything, you need a good installer for PEX and apparently there are a lot of really careless installers out there. 

When it comes to leaks, copper isn't leakproof. Christmas morning found me in the basement fixing a leaking copper fitting. In the 58 years I've lived here, I've pretty much replaced 80% of the copper plumbing in the house. We have a well with galvanized pipe for the well, and tiny little pieces of that galvinzed pipe and tiny little pieces of the metal impeller and pump impreller housing will, with wear and tear, come off and enter the water supply, settling along the bottom of the copper tubing. The two types of metal in contact with one another supposedly sets up a galvanic reaction that slowly, but surely eats away at the copper until it can no longer handle the pressure and you've got a leak. Our water chemistry (ph around 6.0) doesn't help matters either.

If I had the money to do so, I'd replace all of my copper with PEX and run a dedicated line from the manifold to each appliance/outlet. The PEX pipe isn't terribly expensive but installing it properly requires some specialized tools that would have to be bought and there would be some trial and error initially, but long term, I suspect it would be better than the copper given our water issues.

---

@gardenman Thx for your replies. I'm still leary since I have read this online. With the sudden increase in the use of PEX in recent years, failures in PEX plumbing systems have been observed. Failures can be linked to two areas; the pipe and the fitting. The pipe can fail when exposed to chlorine within the water, or over exposure to sunlight before installation. In addition, PEX pipe has also been found to be permeable when exposed to some solutions, including oxygen and some petroleum products, and can leach toxic chemicals from the pipe material. As far as the fitting, the leading cause of failure in a brass fitting used with PEX is caused by dezincification. This causes the fitting to corrode and eventually create leaks.

We have had 3 leaks since living here in the copper. Each time I heard it. DH & the plumber don't know how I could hear it but I did. Now our water meter has a pic of a faucet on it & it it's dripping you have a leak.

[Lilysmom]

---

@151949 wrote:

@Nightowlz  My experience - I don't know if all plastic pipes are this particular one but we do have plastic pipes.Our house is built on a slab foundation in Florida.Before the foundation was poured they put the plumbing in and brought up the pipes. Then we had to pay a exterminator to come and treat the soil for ground termites before they poured the concrete. They said over time the wiggling of the pipes as the water goes through erodes the concrete around them and termites or ants will invade your home through the cracks.YIKES. So we chose to pay to treat the ground.They warrantied this for 10 years. Some of our neighbors who chose not to do this have had horrors like having ants coming up from the grate while they are showering.We continued with the company that did the spraying and have our house treated for insects. I don't know how anyone can live in Florida and not have an insect service.

---

Wow!

[gardenman]

It's kind of interesting how the assembly of Pex has evolved. When I first saw it being used they used an expander that would stretch the pex to allow it to slip over a fitting, then the pex would supposedly shrink and lock onto the fitting. Now there's more of a slip fitting and a metal band that's crimped onto the pipe/fitting to lock everything together. I'm guessing the earlier method of securing pex and fittings wasn't ideal. The crimp method looks pretty secure, but it's interesting that they've changed the way it's installed. I wasn't aware that the installation methods had changed, but I don't use pex as of yet.

[Nomorebirthdays]

@Nightowlz. We have a cellar, and a well so no chemicals added. The pipes from the well to the house are not pex. It is not exposed to outside elements or cement. The drain pipes are pvc.the pex lines all come from a central manifold, so each sink, tub, toliet has thier own tube. The manifold serves to turn of each line a will, the only thing we have to do is turn off the outside hose bibs in the winter. Takes about 5 sec. Very simple, I think I could install it if I had to. Red for hot, blue for cold. Like I said we have had no problems.

Invented in 1960s.