I’m looking for recommendations for PEX fittings. My brother and I are working on a fixer-upper in the mountains of Washington State outside of Seattle. My brother is a retired plumber in California. His son is a plumber in California. PEX is code in Washington, and I have suggested it to my brother for the re-work in order to minimize cost and minimize the broken pipes from freezing. My brother talked to his son, who told him about all these lawsuits involving PEX fittings. I did a quick Google search, and the lawsuits seem to deal with Zurn and Uponor brass fittings, made in China, with a bad alloy that caused dezincification and hance failure.
I’m wondering if anybody can provide guidance on fittings with a robust reputation. One plumber I have talked to has suggested plastic ones, but did not provide a brand name
thanks in advance
Replies
PEX Fittings
I've been using Sharkbite fittings for several months now on various small projects around the house and have yet to experience a failure. Not only do they assemble easily without any special tools, but they can be disassembled just as easily for removal or modification of your plumbing.
Yeah, but they're expensive, and they add more restriction than is ideal.
What restrictions are you talking about? I use Sharkbite fittings from time to time and was just wondering.
The restriction of water flowing through the fitting, due to the reduced diameter. Since cross-sectional area (and hence peak flow) is proportional to the square of diameter, even a relatively slight reduction in diameter is significant.
My understanding is the lawsuit relates to fittings manufactured prior to 2007 and is no longer an issue. If you are in doubt or just want to avoid the brand, you can purchase fittings from any brand online (at a place such as pexsupply.com)(this is what I did until the production issues were fixed).
The push-on fittings are very convenient but much more expensive (~x10 in price)
pex
Where I live, Wirsbo/Uphonor is used by the majority of plumbers. I am currently using it on a fixer upper. Its a great product and available at most supply houses (not big box). If you chose this product, check out the less expensive expander tools from Milwaukee.
upnor/wirsbo
Upnor...Is all I use and the connections are just about all plastic... at shower heads and stub outs I do use the copper brass drops/stubs but... I'd be fine using the sharkbite valves at the cutoff/valve locations sinks/waterclosets ect... and sharkbites at the transition points such as the water heater... my inspectors still have a problem seeing just just a stub of red or blue plastic sticking out of the wall...
p