To Pex or not?

[brewmaster15]

Getting really tired of fixing copper pipes here that get corroded by my acidic well water. Decided to replace them with Pex, bought what I needed and then had second thoughts....did some research.

-off water taste, chemical leaching of mtbe....the devil I don't know

or

stay with copper which leaches copper and lead ( from old solder)...the devil I do know.

Pex sure would be easier and cheaper, has the same life span of about 25 years...though in my house copper can be far less.

I really like my waters taste here...Dont want to lose that.


Anyone here switch over to PEX? currently use it?Like it or hate it?

Im no fool when I research something, I know the risks and pros and cons can be dramatically understated or overstated based on the source....but still....copper pipes have been used for many many more decades than pex.

Thoughts?
al

[brewmaster15]

Gotta love a good leaking copper pipe:mad:

88521

88522

[Cullymoto]

My current home was newly built with pix pipe.
For lines you use often, say the kitchen faucet, the plastic taste leaches out quite quickly and once it's gone it's gone.
For lines you don't often use, the plastic taste hits you like a hammer if you don't let the water run a bit first.
In my opinion, anytime you can stop drinking lead it's a good Time.

[brewmaster15]

My current home was newly built with pix pipe.
For lines you use often, say the kitchen faucet, the plastic taste leaches out quite quickly and once it's gone it's gone.
For lines you don't often use, the plastic taste hits you like a hammer if you don't let the water run a bit first.
In my opinion, anytime you can stop drinking lead it's a good Time.

Thank you for the info!

al

[inkfam]

We do all commercial and residential homes in Pex. Good stuff...

[nc0gnet0]

Does Pex finally have it right? I know of several class action suits in years pass.

[pitdogg2]

I like the idea of the stuff myself but have never used. Why do I feel that in 20 yrs it will be like when they pushed CPVC years ago only to come back and make it no longer up to "code" or worse finding out that for 20 yrs we have been getting cancer'ated

[brewmaster15]

Sigh, I caved...I went with the Devil I know...just finished running new copper . The pipes in question run to my kitchen sink. The one location that we use constantly for cooking and drinking. I really like the idea of the stuff but I think I will stick with the copper for now...Lol..$300 in Pex pipes,fittings and tools is going back to the Homedepot tonight... The crimping tool alone was $90.00

Thanks everyone.

Al

[DonMD]

Al, I've never heard of PEX pipe. Wikipedia has no entry for it, but google shows me some flexible piping in rolls.

I am surprised to learn of your corrosion with copper pipes. Here in the DC area there have been many cases of copper pipes developing pin holes due to some electrolysis or perhaps poorly manufactured pipe. The other issue you raise is lead leaching into the water, and that's a serious problem, especially with young children. DC has that problem in spades in many public housing projects. But new copper and new solder should not have these problems at all.

Can I ask why you didn't consider using PVC? I know there are lots of arguments against it, on an environmental level, but you didn't mention any of those, and didn't consider it at all. I use it a lot for plumbing my fish tanks.

Anyway, good luck with your plumbing projects! -Don

[nc0gnet0]

Al, I've never heard of PEX pipe. Wikipedia has no entry for it, but google shows me some flexible piping in rolls.

I am surprised to learn of your corrosion with copper pipes. Here in the DC area there have been many cases of copper pipes developing pin holes due to some electrolysis or perhaps poorly manufactured pipe. The other issue you raise is lead leaching into the water, and that's a serious problem, especially with young children. DC has that problem in spades in many public housing projects. But new copper and new solder should not have these problems at all.
-Don

My guess is this:



that get corroded by my acidic well water

the leaching/corrosion of metals is greatly reduced with alkaline/high PH water.

[Ryan]

Don, there is a Wikipedia article on it, but it goes by the formal name, cross-linked polyethylene.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene

I can't really speak to PEX because I don't have that in my house, but I can tell you that it's HDPE-based, and for the past 14 years our company has installed hundreds of thousands of feet of HDPE pipe. When we install pipe via directional bore, it is almost always HDPE: water mains, reclaimed water mains, sewer mains, conduit for electrical and telecommunications, etc. So even in houses using copper and PVC here, their water is likely being delivered to their house in HDPE pipe.

[alron2]

Sigh, I caved...I went with the Devil I know...just finished running new copper . The pipes in question run to my kitchen sink. The one location that we use constantly for cooking and drinking. I really like the idea of the stuff but I think I will stick with the copper for now...Lol..$300 in Pex pipes,fittings and tools is going back to the Homedepot tonight... The crimping tool alone was $90.00

Thanks everyone.

Al

Instead of buying the tool we used Shark Teeth since we were only doing a few runs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPLdnlVak88

Ron

[DiscusOnly]

I think you made a good choice to stick with copper. The up front cost of getting the tools to do PEX for what could be a one time thing for a small run is just not worth the trouble.

[zimmjeff]

We used pex for the whole house seven years ago. When we bought the house all the copper had leaks. Easy to work with and you can fix mistakes in min not hours. No change in the taste. I wouldn't go back to copper for anything. Jeff

[pitdogg2]

Al, I've never heard of PEX pipe. Wikipedia has no entry for it, but google shows me some flexible piping in rolls.

I am surprised to learn of your corrosion with copper pipes. Here in the DC area there have been many cases of copper pipes developing pin holes due to some electrolysis or perhaps poorly manufactured pipe. The other issue you raise is lead leaching into the water, and that's a serious problem, especially with young children. DC has that problem in spades in many public housing projects. But new copper and new solder should not have these problems at all.

Can I ask why you didn't consider using PVC? I know there are lots of arguments against it, on an environmental level, but you didn't mention any of those, and didn't consider it at all. I use it a lot for plumbing my fish tanks.

Anyway, good luck with your plumbing projects! -Don

Don most areas it is illegal to use PVC for incoming potable water. That is why all PVC has DWV on the side it stands for drain,waste and vent.

[alron2]

I believe CPVC will pass code and work just fine; cheaper, and easier to install than copper. I would still choose PLEX.

Ron

[DonMD]

Don, there is a Wikipedia article on it, but it goes by the formal name, cross-linked polyethylene.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene

I can't really speak to PEX because I don't have that in my house, but I can tell you that it's HDPE-based, and for the past 14 years our company has installed hundreds of thousands of feet of HDPE pipe. When we install pipe via directional bore, it is almost always HDPE: water mains, reclaimed water mains, sewer mains, conduit for electrical and telecommunications, etc. So even in houses using copper and PVC here, their water is likely being delivered to their house in HDPE pipe.

Thanks, Paul, I learned something new. Very interesting. Good write-up on Wikipedia.

[Crockett]

I am a former Plumber turned CPA, I have never heard of PEX pipe. I recently upgraded my water lines in our house and used PVC. PVC is great and easy to work with. I used CPVC for the hot water lines. Not sure of the Plumbing code in CT, but PVC is both inexpensive and easy to work with.

Crockett

[Crockett]

Did a little reading and found out that it is important that the PVC pipe, and CPVC pipe is marked “NSF-61” or “NSF-PW” to indicate that they have passed testing for potentially harmful chemicals leaching into the water. The pipe I used is newer PVC and has this on it.