MiamiCanes
New Member
I'm getting ready (after a ~4-month detour that included a new roof, new central A/C, and numerous other problems) to finally replace my bathtub and the PB plumbing in my bathroom. Up until this afternoon, I thought I had everything more or less under control... then I encountered two employees at a plumbing store who vehemently disagreed with each other about whether crimps or compression fittings are preferable.
One argued that crimp fittings were 99% of the reason why PB plumbing fails in the first place, and blamed the problems Americans have with PB on the fact that crimping was a nearly universal practice here, while Europeans (who apparently still use PB) have always used compression fittings.
The other argued that PB plumbing failed in America because they used brass fittings that corroded, or used plastic compression fittings that cracked or leaked unless they were flawlessly installed. THAT employee claimed crimping was the professional way to do it, and compression fittings were a crutch so Home Depot could sell fittings normal homeowners could use without having to buy expensive tools first.
The first then countered by arguing that the only reason professionals crimped was because it was faster and cheaper (in the long run) than using compression fittings.
At that point, the store's owner (apparently, a retired plumber) came out of his office, and said he'd never use anything besides copper or CPVC in his own home... but that anything was better than PB... then went back into his office.
I then discovered that they don't have fittings explicitly designed to join PB to PEX, and that the PEX they sell is apparently "hard" PEX (I guess "normal" PEX is softer?).
Argh. Help. Is there a good info site somewhere that tells the whole story about PEX and make an informed choice between plastic-vs-metal fittings, crimping vs compression fittings, hard-vs-soft PEX, and the rest of the issues I stumbled over this afternoon?
The plumbing books I've read gave me the impression that PEX is wonderful to work with and problem-free... they said nothing about the fact that Lowe's apparently doesn't sell PEX, 2/3 of Home Depot's PEX fittings ("Sharkbite"?) are special-order only (great... so when I realize I need ${something not in stock} I can be without a working shower for a week waiting for it to arrive), or that even "normal" non-bigbox plumbing stores might not sell everything I need. Is this typical? Or did I just manage to find Broward County's one seriously messed up plumbing supply store?
One argued that crimp fittings were 99% of the reason why PB plumbing fails in the first place, and blamed the problems Americans have with PB on the fact that crimping was a nearly universal practice here, while Europeans (who apparently still use PB) have always used compression fittings.
The other argued that PB plumbing failed in America because they used brass fittings that corroded, or used plastic compression fittings that cracked or leaked unless they were flawlessly installed. THAT employee claimed crimping was the professional way to do it, and compression fittings were a crutch so Home Depot could sell fittings normal homeowners could use without having to buy expensive tools first.
The first then countered by arguing that the only reason professionals crimped was because it was faster and cheaper (in the long run) than using compression fittings.
At that point, the store's owner (apparently, a retired plumber) came out of his office, and said he'd never use anything besides copper or CPVC in his own home... but that anything was better than PB... then went back into his office.
I then discovered that they don't have fittings explicitly designed to join PB to PEX, and that the PEX they sell is apparently "hard" PEX (I guess "normal" PEX is softer?).
Argh. Help. Is there a good info site somewhere that tells the whole story about PEX and make an informed choice between plastic-vs-metal fittings, crimping vs compression fittings, hard-vs-soft PEX, and the rest of the issues I stumbled over this afternoon?
The plumbing books I've read gave me the impression that PEX is wonderful to work with and problem-free... they said nothing about the fact that Lowe's apparently doesn't sell PEX, 2/3 of Home Depot's PEX fittings ("Sharkbite"?) are special-order only (great... so when I realize I need ${something not in stock} I can be without a working shower for a week waiting for it to arrive), or that even "normal" non-bigbox plumbing stores might not sell everything I need. Is this typical? Or did I just manage to find Broward County's one seriously messed up plumbing supply store?