4 ms·

PEX is great. I highly recommend keeping some shark bites and spare pieces of PEX around, as it's easy to do repairs on your own if you have an issue.

joezydeco 4y ago
I live in an area where the plumbing is soldered copper and the wiring is all in steel conduit. PEX, ProPress, Sharkbites, Romex... it's all just a little scary to me.
- latchkey 4y ago
  I seriously can't recommend this guy enough for general repair/building work... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnorhjQR4zJkT7AVNhu395Q/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnorhjQR4zJkT7AVNhu395Q/vid... Friendly, super knowledgable, takes the fear out of the DIY. For electrical, I do a lot myself, but when it came to running a 50amp line + breaker panel inside my place (which also required outdoor ladder work) to replace the steel conduit indoors, I just hired a professional even though it was very expensive.
  - joezydeco 4y ago
    It's not the DIY aspect^, it's the idea of ProPress joint sitting pressurized behind a wall for a decade. ^ I'm knowledgeable enough to do my own wiring and plumbing, but pay for licensed/bonded contractors instead. I sleep better at night and my insurance company probably does as well.
    - latchkey 4y ago
      Up to you, but it honestly really isn't that much of an issue and I'd trust a simple properly crimped joint (which is easily visually inspected with a simple tool) a heck of a lot more than a welded one that is impossible to see what the inside looks like... um, did I put the right amount of flux on? did I know to use the 1/2 of solder to 1/2 of pipe trick? As far as insurance companies... I bought an old place... I'm finding all sorts of stuff that isn't up to code (hidden electrical boxes, in the floor!, with wire nuts and not even twisted together wire and not even grounded properly)... I'm bringing it up to code, with modern products... in a court of law, it is going to be hard for them to argue against me.
    - matwood 4y ago
      Depends on what you're doing. I've done quite a bit of DIY, and much of it is probably better than if I hired someone for the simple fact I care, and I'm not trying to do it as fast as possible.
latchkey 4y ago
From what I understand, while it is up to code, pro's don't put sharkbites in walls. I've gone with ss crimps instead of copper rings too. Mostly cause I live near the ocean and the ss crimps just seem easier to use. 200' of blue/red sharkbite brand pex b tubing is only about $70 on amazon right now, amazing.
- conductr 4y ago
  If the walls are open, they shouldn’t. They should be using the minimum number of connections/joins because that’s always going to be a higher point of failure. However, When you/they need to patch something and don’t want to open up the whole room/house, then that’s the correct use case for these devices.
- matwood 4y ago
  I should have been more clear. I wouldn't use a sharkbite for a permanent fix, but being able to patch something until you can either do a permanent fix or get a plumber out is a big win. I even keep PVC glue and some collars/caps for the same reason.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Shark bite is awesome for capping a broken pipe until you can get around to a proper fix. Love those shark-bite caps. IMO every home owner should have pipe cutters for the pipes in their house (whatever materials those may be), and a set of those caps ready to apply for every size of pipe they've got. Ought to be as common as having a screwdriver and hammer. They're absolute life-savers when a leak or pipe burst happens at odd hours and you just want to get the leak stopped and the water back on and go back to bed or get back to work or whatever. Cut the pipe, steel wool the end clean, slap the shark bite cap on, get on with life until you have the time to properly fix it. Turns something very inconvenient into something merely a little inconvenient. Beats the hell out of having to break out the solder or pipe glue at 2AM.
  - mindslight 4y ago
    If you've got a significant leak in a supply pipe, there should be a valve on the branch that will allow you to shut off just that branch rather than the whole house. You might need to shut off the whole house first while you figure out where that valve is, but you probably won't have to do ad-hoc plumbing to get most of the house back on. But yes, in general I'm always for people becoming familiar with tools and DIY.
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
Sharkbites are a recipe for disaster when their O-rings fail.
- matwood 4y ago
  As I mentioned above, I should have been more clear about using it for emergency repairs and not necessarily permanent fixes. I also keep pvc pipe glue and some collars/caps around for the same reason.
RetpolineDrama 4y ago
>PEX is great. PEX is very very not-great. It's constantly leeching carcinogens and endocrine disruptors into your sitting water. Your modern home's recirculation system is making that even worse, cycling hot water and concentrating leeched petrochemical products in your hot water line. Some of them even boil before water which means they'll make it through a distiller. Plumbers like it because it's easy/saves them time, and they'll love charging you big $$$ to rip it out in 20 years when it's banned.

joezydeco 4y ago

I live in an area where the plumbing is soldered copper and the wiring is all in steel conduit. PEX, ProPress, Sharkbites, Romex... it's all just a little scary to me.

latchkey 4y ago
I seriously can't recommend this guy enough for general repair/building work... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnorhjQR4zJkT7AVNhu395Q/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnorhjQR4zJkT7AVNhu395Q/vid... Friendly, super knowledgable, takes the fear out of the DIY. For electrical, I do a lot myself, but when it came to running a 50amp line + breaker panel inside my place (which also required outdoor ladder work) to replace the steel conduit indoors, I just hired a professional even though it was very expensive.
- joezydeco 4y ago
  It's not the DIY aspect^, it's the idea of ProPress joint sitting pressurized behind a wall for a decade. ^ I'm knowledgeable enough to do my own wiring and plumbing, but pay for licensed/bonded contractors instead. I sleep better at night and my insurance company probably does as well.
  - latchkey 4y ago
    Up to you, but it honestly really isn't that much of an issue and I'd trust a simple properly crimped joint (which is easily visually inspected with a simple tool) a heck of a lot more than a welded one that is impossible to see what the inside looks like... um, did I put the right amount of flux on? did I know to use the 1/2 of solder to 1/2 of pipe trick? As far as insurance companies... I bought an old place... I'm finding all sorts of stuff that isn't up to code (hidden electrical boxes, in the floor!, with wire nuts and not even twisted together wire and not even grounded properly)... I'm bringing it up to code, with modern products... in a court of law, it is going to be hard for them to argue against me.
  - matwood 4y ago
    Depends on what you're doing. I've done quite a bit of DIY, and much of it is probably better than if I hired someone for the simple fact I care, and I'm not trying to do it as fast as possible.

latchkey 4y ago

From what I understand, while it is up to code, pro's don't put sharkbites in walls. I've gone with ss crimps instead of copper rings too. Mostly cause I live near the ocean and the ss crimps just seem easier to use. 200' of blue/red sharkbite brand pex b tubing is only about $70 on amazon right now, amazing.

conductr 4y ago
If the walls are open, they shouldn’t. They should be using the minimum number of connections/joins because that’s always going to be a higher point of failure. However, When you/they need to patch something and don’t want to open up the whole room/house, then that’s the correct use case for these devices.
matwood 4y ago
I should have been more clear. I wouldn't use a sharkbite for a permanent fix, but being able to patch something until you can either do a permanent fix or get a plumber out is a big win. I even keep PVC glue and some collars/caps for the same reason.
yamtaddle 4y ago
Shark bite is awesome for capping a broken pipe until you can get around to a proper fix. Love those shark-bite caps. IMO every home owner should have pipe cutters for the pipes in their house (whatever materials those may be), and a set of those caps ready to apply for every size of pipe they've got. Ought to be as common as having a screwdriver and hammer. They're absolute life-savers when a leak or pipe burst happens at odd hours and you just want to get the leak stopped and the water back on and go back to bed or get back to work or whatever. Cut the pipe, steel wool the end clean, slap the shark bite cap on, get on with life until you have the time to properly fix it. Turns something very inconvenient into something merely a little inconvenient. Beats the hell out of having to break out the solder or pipe glue at 2AM.
- mindslight 4y ago
  If you've got a significant leak in a supply pipe, there should be a valve on the branch that will allow you to shut off just that branch rather than the whole house. You might need to shut off the whole house first while you figure out where that valve is, but you probably won't have to do ad-hoc plumbing to get most of the house back on. But yes, in general I'm always for people becoming familiar with tools and DIY.

kevin_thibedeau 4y ago

Sharkbites are a recipe for disaster when their O-rings fail.

matwood 4y ago
As I mentioned above, I should have been more clear about using it for emergency repairs and not necessarily permanent fixes. I also keep pvc pipe glue and some collars/caps around for the same reason.

RetpolineDrama 4y ago

>PEX is great. PEX is very very not-great. It's constantly leeching carcinogens and endocrine disruptors into your sitting water. Your modern home's recirculation system is making that even worse, cycling hot water and concentrating leeched petrochemical products in your hot water line. Some of them even boil before water which means they'll make it through a distiller. Plumbers like it because it's easy/saves them time, and they'll love charging you big $$$ to rip it out in 20 years when it's banned.