I F@#$ing Hate PEX !!!

[Joe (SoCal)]

I can’t tell you how many times it fails , breaks or leaks.

You don’t use plastic ANYTHING in a grooming van. I’ve replace so many broken bits and leaking hoses with solid brass and high end hoses.

EDITED TO ADD: Oh and it never breaks, leaks or fails at the perfect time it's always in the middle of a job or in the pitch dark of night.

[Garret]

That doesn't look like Pex - just cheap plastic barb fittings with cheap plastic clamps.

Pex (at least all I've seen) is smooth hose with a metal crimp on the end:

[Paul Pless]

that does look like pex

[amish rob]

Pex is AWESOME for securing arrowheads to shafts. We make “stump knockers” from masonry nails and pex tube. It sorta heat shrinks, see?

[mmd]

It ain't the PEX, it's the fittings, Joe,

I got two words for you: sharkbite fittings

Many of the local boatshops use them in commercial fishing boats, and they last in a brutal environment. They are not cheap, but they are good.

[Joe (SoCal)]

The thing that KILLS me is we pay $90,000 for these vans and they keep cheeping out on important little parts like this.

I'm drafting a killer spec sheet for the up-fitter that eliminates all these problems. I've done this before and they build our vans without previous flawed parts. They actually thanked me for improving their product with fixing problems that I find in the field, but then they add a kink like this crappy hoses and plastic connectors

[wizbang 13]

wait until the rodents get thirsty

[Joe (SoCal)]

wait until the rodents get thirsty

Yup already had a $1,900 wiring harness eaten, bounce dryer sheets work. Also having all the vans working 7 days a week 12 hrs a day puts a cramp in the rodents diets.

[Beowolf]

Yup already had a $1,900 wiring harness get eaten, bounce dryer sheets work. Also having all the vans working 7 days a week 12 hrs a day puts a cramp in the rodents diets.

Amen to this.

We stuff about 200 drier sheets into the Airstream every fall when we prep it for storage. The bonus is that in April, we hook up to a trailer that smells “Spring Time Fresh.”

[Hugh MacD]

Dryer sheets chase mice?!? THAT's worth knowing! Do you poke them down into holes or what?

[Joe (SoCal)]

Dryer sheets chase mice?!? THAT's worth knowing! Do you poke them down into holes or what?

I ziptie them all over the place especially on wiring harnesses

Also, I found out some auto manufacturers are using soy based wire insulation, you might as well slather it in cheese wiz

[Gerarddm]

We used PEX for underground lines when installing geothermal heat pumps. Had fused connections. 100 years plus lifespan, if not indefinitely.

Use better fittings.

[bluedog225]

Pex and shark bite is the tentative plan for the cabin. And run in such a way that I drain the entire system (except p-traps) with one fitting. May not be an issue in sunny ca.

[Nicholas Carey]

Pex and shark bite is the tentative plan for the cabin. And run in such a way that I drain the entire system (except p-traps) with one fitting. May not be an issue in sunny ca.

I like their ball valves with integrated drain. https://www.sharkbite.com/products/b...lve-drain-vent

[bluedog225]

Didn’t know about that one. Looks like just the thing. Thanks!

[Jim Bow]

My neighbor did his whole house in PEX, but he had free access to a $600 tool that makes the fittings permanent.

[wizbang 13]

dryer sheets.... toxic .
I can smell them in my neighborhood sometimes from 400 feet away.

[bluedog225]

Is shark-bite available in California? Getting mixed results on the amount of lead allowed.

As of January 1, 2010, changes to California and Vermont laws prohibit selling any pipe, fitting, or fixture that is intended to dispense or convey drinking water and that has a weighted average lead content of more than 0.25% based on a wetted surface area calculation.

[Joe (SoCal)]

dryer sheets.... toxic .
I can smell them in my neighborhood sometimes from 400 feet away.

Rodent's can smell them at 1,000 feet away

[Joe (SoCal)]

Is shark-bite available in California? Getting mixed results on the amount of lead allowed.

As of January 1, 2010, changes to California and Vermont laws prohibit selling any pipe, fitting, or fixture that is intended to dispense or convey drinking water and that has a weighted average lead content of more than 0.25% based on a wetted surface area calculation.

Yea I saw them at the big orange box store

[oznabrag]

Pex and shark bite is the tentative plan for the cabin. And run in such a way that I drain the entire system (except p-traps) with one fitting. May not be an issue in sunny ca.

Using pressure-regulated compressed air to purge the system works, too.

This will overcome any sagging pipe and so forth.

[Breakaway]

Use a lot of Pex. Only flaw I can see is weak UV resistance.

Kevin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[jpatrick]

The hose in the OP isn't PEX. Joe ought to get his terms correct before yelling at anyone. My entire house is plumbed with PEX. It's the second house that I've personally done. Neither one had any joint failure from day 1. Neither one has any pipe or fitting failure since their install. PEX is susceptible to UV failure but fortunately there's little sunshine in my crawlspace and zero within the walls of my house.

I don't own any stock in a PEX supplier... I just think it's a good product. And easy peasy to install. Shark Bites are great but expensive. A simple stainless steel clamp that's crimped with the proper tool (these are not expensive) is perfectly adequate. Shark Bites are mostly used for quick repair and when one wants to be able to undo some joint.

Good tip on the dryer sheets though. I'm gonna get some and put into my vehicles.

Jeff

[Joe (SoCal)]

The hose in the OP isn't PEX. Joe ought to get his terms correct before yelling at anyone. My entire house is plumbed with PEX. It's the second house that I've personally done. Neither one had any joint failure from day 1. Neither one has any pipe or fitting failure since their install. PEX is susceptible to UV failure but fortunately there's little sunshine in my crawlspace and zero within the walls of my house.

I don't own any stock in a PEX supplier... I just think it's a good product. And easy peasy to install. Shark Bites are great but expensive. A simple stainless steel clamp that's crimped with the proper tool (these are not expensive) is perfectly adequate. Shark Bites are mostly used for quick repair and when one wants to be able to undo some joint.

Good tip on the dryer sheets though. I'm gonna get some and put into my vehicles.

Jeff

Sorry guys FWIW all those plastic bits and connectors were in the PEX shelf at the big orange box.

[Bobby of Tulsa]

Sorry guys FWIW all those plastic bits and connectors were in the PEX shelf at the big orange box.

If you are going to use pex go to the plumbing supply to buy it. The box store suff is a cheap knock off, the crimping tool and clamp a well worth their price.

[mmd]

Last week I had to repair some plumbing in my house - a couple of copper elbow fittings installed badly thirty years ago decided it was time to increase the humidity in my office. Fortunately, nothing was water-damaged. It also gave me the opportunity to isolate the plumbing to the laundry room on the main floor. I drained the system, cut away the offending copper pipe, and installed SharkBite ball valves, 90-degree elbows, and (not shown) in-line couplings to mate back into the copper piping in the laundry room. Installing the Pex tubing and SharkBite fittings took less time than cutting the copper pipe out.

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[J.Madison]

[QUOTE=mmd;6399651]It ain't the PEX, it's the fittings, Joe,

I got two words for you: sharkbite fittings

Many of the local boatshops use them in commercial fishing boats, and they last in a brutal environment. They are not cheap, but they are good.

[/QUOTE

I'm surprised to hear they are popular on commercial boats. I've used them before, but my experience with (different) push to connect fittings is that they are not robust when subject to vibration. They are also much more expensive. Are they actually seen as superior to a solid brass fitting with crimp ring? Or just faster and easier to use?

[mmd]

Definitely faster and easier, Mr. Madison, and any commercial boatbuilder loves those two words... as long as the quality is up to par. I know of three local builders who install all PEX tubing and Sharkbite fittings in the domestic and seawater water systems outside the engine room. (Regs require metal pipe in the E.R., and the plastic bits in the SharkBite fittings don't meet regs.) There are a few boats that have been fishing for at least five years with PEX/SharkBite and I have not heard of any unwarranted failures.

[hawkeye54]

One more opinion for Joe - The PEX we carry at the 'other' big-box store is a solid red (hot) and solid blue (cold) - I have unloaded literally dozens of semi-trailers of incoming merchandise. It is really easy to put stuff in the wrong place. Make double sure you get the right stuff, especially with over-the-road vibration.



Rick

[Joe (SoCal)]

For me I went old school brass fittings, quality hose and stainless steel hose clamps like this - no problems

[Hugh MacD]

Joe, what they put in your vans looks like reinforced PVC and is entirely worthy of your low opinion. Too bad the manufacturer decided to "cheap out" on critical systems...all too common! I like the god old school band clamps, too, but the PEX (cross linked polyethylene) is too dense to be compressed by those so they won't work with it. They make special "band" clamps that work a treat, however. As I re-do stuff here I'm replacing my plastic entirely with PAX and will be adding some outdoor plumbing under the deck with it as well...we'll see how that works

[Nicholas Scheuer]

You had me goin' for awhile there, Joe. I though perhaps a dog had eaten some PEX!

[Old Dryfoot]

I think you got hosed on those fittings.

[oznabrag]

Sorry guys FWIW all those plastic bits and connectors were in the PEX shelf at the big orange box.

And that convinced you it was correct . . . How?

The tubing in the pics is not PEX.

You now have three or four people you've known and argued and mourned and celebrated with for 20 years telling you that is not PEX, soooo . . .

PEX has no braided reinforcement sleeve, for one thing, and those silly plastic crimps couldn't possibly deform a piece of PEX enough to effect a joint, much less a joint that would stay water tight at operating pressure.

[Kevin T]

PEX in my house and my brother's house and never an issue. The manifolds make it a snap to change out a fixture anywhere in the house. Just turn the individual fixture in either the garage or hall bath utility closet (we have the house split into two systems) to the off position and have at it.

Came with a "as long as I live in the house" warranty that is transferable to a new owner for an additional 25 years. Almost 20 year for me and close to 25 years in my brother's house. LOVE IT!

OP photos don't look like any PEX I've ever seen, and oh yeah, Shark Bite connectors are the bomb.