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What Kind of Plumbing Pipes Are These?
I want to hook up a RO ,but this is what is under my kitchen sink. I have no idea of what kind of fittings to use to hook it up and the directions for the RO are not helpful.
PEX, and be careful with it.
Are those flex supplies one piece to the valves....the ones leading to the faucet.......?
If they are not, then you could possibly put a add-a-valve to that equation without buying expensive crimpers and pray the rented ones are calibrated correctly.
Otherwise it's call a plumber time, or get sharkbites and make up a tee connection to feed the RO system. You'll have trouble finding something to bring you down to 1/4" though in regards to sharkbites.
Read what the end of this sentence means.
Yes as Rugged said you have PEX water piping.
#1
If it were me I would change the plastic supply lines going to the faucets and dishwasher and isc maaker if you have that, and replace them with braided stainless steel. Be sure you don't kink them, get longer lines than needed and loop them.
#2
Unless you are ready to buy a $100.00 tool, fittings @ about $3.00 ea., a bag of crimp rings, maybe a length of PEX to do the work, a crimp ring spliter @$30.00, and practice so you know you have done it right so you don't flood your home, you may want to call a plumber. Be sure to ask if they work on PEX. Some don't.
Just FYI, the plastic supply lines can burst.
Is this what is underneath also? How can I replace with braided lines?
The PEX is fine, the red and white plastic lines, he is talking about the supply lines to the faucet and dishwasher, the plastic lines after the nut. They are the braided plastic, the stainless steel braided supply lines are better. If they are not leaking yours will be fine unless you mess with them, at which time have them chainged to the stainless steel braided supplies.
It will be cheaper for you to hire a plumber to tap into the pex lines to add something than to buy the proper tools to do such a small job.
Any snap on style or compression fitting will cause you more trouble than it is worth.
ACE rents the pex CRIMPER here in NC
10 bucks a day, I used it today for first time fairly easy, on thing
make sure your around the ring and centered in the tool and the tool is 90 degrees to the ping to get even crimp
if u mess up cut off and go again no way to remove or resue the fitting
I saved the center picture, tried to blow up the image to see if there are 3/8" compression nuts to those vinyl faucet supplies.
It appears they are not and are made into the valve.
Somebody do the same as me and see if that's a 3/8" removable compression nut.
To me it starts off as a crimp from the go.
Read what the end of this sentence means.
RUGGED, I looked at them and I think your right and the dishwasher supply line looks like a backwards toilet supply.
I don't know how to enlarge it.
About the only thing we can bet on is the 3/8" threaded connection at the faucet. He could reroute and adapt the flexible hose to the input side of the RO unit, then run the RO output to the sink with conventional plumbing. Doesn't look too difficult.
Last edited by Mikey; 01-30-2008 at 07:54 AM.
I recently had a customer who was hooking up an RO filter just like you... He tried using a saddle valve on the PEX! cangratulations on not falling into that it was not pretty!
Last edited by Redwood; 01-22-2008 at 09:17 PM.
I did a save and enlarge on the center picture and I could not see any kind of threaded connection on the sink faucet lines.
Then again, my eyesight is not what it was forty years ago and the picture also lost definition in the enlargement.
I wouldn't trust the calibration of any PEX crimper that I was able to rent. I agree that a plumber / pipefitter trained and experienced in PEX be used to install valves with standard threaded outlets.
I appreciate the responses. I'm still mulling this over. I hate to give in and call a plumber. A guy that does maintenance for the mobile home company that I bought from said that I don't need a plumber. He said that Home Depot has everything I need and it wouldn't cost all that much. I happened to be at HD for something else and went over to plumbing. The lady seemed to be very knowledgeable about this pex plumbing and said to use "shark" fittings. What are your thoughts on this?
It looks like the white supply pipe coming through the flloor is PEX. It also looks like the braided line coming out of the valve to the faucet may be a male thread of some size. I can't imagine that they would connect that flex permanently to the valve.
If the valve is a standard pipe thread on the outlet side you should be able to disconnect the braided flex at the faucet; then unscrew the flex from the valve, using a wrench to hold the valve so you don't twist the PEX. It may be 1/4 or 3/8" male pipe thread. You can then put a brass tee to the valve (it would be nice if you could find one with a male run on one end) and continue on to the faucet with the flex line. Then put a valve on the branch of the tee to supply the RO unit. Connect the branch to the RO with another flex line similar to what goes to the faucet.
Why not just move the [hopefully] standard pipe threaded fitting from the sink to a tee, then one outlet of the tee to the sink, and the other to the RO? No need to disturb the PEX fittings on the valve, and all plumbing downstream of the tee is conventional. The outlet of the RO is presumably standard.
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