Polybutylene: Help buying manufactured home

rchaney99 · Mar 29, 2009

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a manufactured home that was built in 1996. It has never been moved, excepted when installed at the current location.

After looking around, I see it has poly plumbing with copper crimps. It is on well walter with a water softner.

Should I get it replaced? There is no sign of leaks anywhere. There is a slight buildup of white/blue minerals at the water heater where the poly connects, but that is all I can find. Ive been told if your on well water, poly pipes are fine since chlorine is the main culprit for poly failing.

Ive been reading around and says a complete renovation of the existing poly pipes require cutting into the walls. Is this true on a manufacted home that has a decent size crawl space?

Thanks for any help, I am completely new to this stuff!

SewerRatz · Mar 29, 2009

rchaney99 said:
Hi,

We are in the process of buying a manufactured home that was built in 1996. It has never been moved, excepted when installed at the current location.

After looking around, I see it has poly plumbing with copper crimps. It is on well walter with a water softner.

Should I get it replaced? There is no sign of leaks anywhere. There is a slight buildup of white/blue minerals at the water heater where the poly connects, but that is all I can find. Ive been told if your on well water, poly pipes are fine since chlorine is the main culprit for poly failing.

Ive been reading around and says a complete renovation of the existing poly pipes require cutting into the walls. Is this true on a manufacted home that has a decent size crawl space?

Thanks for any help, I am completely new to this stuff!

Most manufactured homes I have been in ran the piping in the crawl space and right through the floor, so changing it out should not big a huge deal. My mother-in-law moved to a retirement community that was nothing but manufactured homes and this was the case for her, she had the poly pipe and was on city water, never had a pipe fail till the day she died. She lived in that home for 40+ years.

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hj · Mar 29, 2009

pipe

Is the pipe gray or some other color? 1996 was the tail end of PB piping, but the beginning of PEX so you might not have PB unless it is labeled that way.

rchaney99 · Mar 29, 2009

hj said:
Is the pipe gray or some other color? 1996 was the tail end of PB piping, but the beginning of PEX so you might not have PB unless it is labeled that way.

Its like a dark grey in color, so I am assuming it is PB. I thought PEX was clear or blue...

hj · Mar 29, 2009

Pb

PB was a medium or light gray, but it is probably PB since PEX comes in several colors but not gray.

Gary Slusser · Mar 29, 2009

And you probably have PE (polyethylene) pipe from the pressure tank back to the foot valve for a jet pump or a submersible pump in the well. It can be black or blue. Or you could have sch 40 PVC or galvanized.

I wouldn't replace the PB until I had to.

rchaney99 · Mar 30, 2009

Gary Slusser said:
And you probably have PE (polyethylene) pipe from the pressure tank back to the foot valve for a jet pump or a submersible pump in the well. It can be black or blue. Or you could have sch 40 PVC or galvanized.

I wouldn't replace the PB until I had to.

From the water heater back to the presure tank and softner is a black steel pipe. Same pipe from stock tank as well. It is on a 2000 gallon stock tank.

Thanks for the PB advice. Ive heard a lot of bad opinions on PB which makes me eery!

Gary Slusser · Mar 30, 2009

Black iron pipe is a bad choice, it rusts just laying around let alone with water in it. That adds ferric iron (rust) to the water.

Yes there are a lot of negatives spread by gossip and that's how we managed to get our present government but as we see, your PB is like most, it is problem free after all these years.

tritontr · Mar 31, 2009

The problem with PB piping as I understand it was when the fittings were plastic not copper. I have a 96 model with no problems so far. Just keep a supply of Pex to Poly fittings and invest in a good crimper and (Go-No Go gauge) if you do your own work. If you don't do any plumbing work yourself having the fittings there when a plumber shows up helps. When it is converted to Pex they will most likely have the rest on the truck.

Polybutylene: Help buying manufactured home

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