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Is the polyethline cross link (PX) plumbing supply system a good choice for new home construction? With the previous failures of plastic supply plumbing systems, it is a little scary to go away from copper. On the other hand, the plastic pipe system seems much easier to install.
Has there been research on the safety of using water from the PX pipes? What is the relative cost of PX compared with copper?
I am an owner builder. Thanks!
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If you are refering to PEX water systems, then yes it is tried and true.
I use it a lot on plumbing repairs. It is not like the old polybutylene piping found in the old mobile homes. This is a whole new ballgame, and it has shown remarkable stability and longevity.
These tubing systems are great because they can be run for a long distance without the need for fittings and splices. Copper tubing can too, but this stuff is whole lot easier to work with. Most of the fittings crimp on with a special crimping tool, but there are a lot of compression type fittings available also. Just DON'T put a compression fitting of any kind in an enclosed wall. They are designed to be installed where you can get at them. Crimped fittings can go in the wall cavity.
Plumbing codes will dictate what kind of tubing to use, and what fittings.
Good luck.
James DuHamel
*There have been quite a few discussions on PEX over the past few years. You may want to do a search on Breaktime (the "Search" button on the tool bar just under the "Fine Homebuilding" banner at the top of this page) to see what was said.
*plastic v. copper
*RE: "the safety of using water from the PEX pipes?"Not to worry. Or if you choose to worry, don't buy any food products from the supermarket. Your milk, fruit juice, sauces, etc come in LDPE or HDPE. And PEX is a more stable polyeythlene than either of those. NSF says it's food grade, Proctor-Gambell says it's food grade. All the environmental labs use PE containers for tests at really low limits (parts per billion, parts per trillion). I'm a chemical and environmental engineer, know a bit of toxicology and it doesn't concern me.As to copper: Getting the lead out of solder in 1985 was a definite public health advance. The tin/antimony solder that we use now I wonder about a bit. Certainly not as bad as lead, but as lead gets removed from the environment the ill-effects of other heavy metals are started to be visible above the previous "statistical noise" of all the lead exposure. Nothing to indite tin/antimony to date, but I still wonder. (Yet I laid all copper pipe in my own house last year.) -David
*It is a whole new ball game for us in North America. Nearly 40 yrs. old in Europe. Good answer James.
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Is the polyethline cross link (PX) plumbing supply system a good choice for new home construction? With the previous failures of plastic supply plumbing systems, it is a little scary to go away from copper. On the other hand, the plastic pipe system seems much easier to install.
Has there been research on the safety of using water from the PX pipes? What is the relative cost of PX compared with copper?
I am an owner builder. Thanks!