I have a plumber redoing my bathroom. I noticed that instead of using copper tubing, he is using plastic. There is red and blue plastic tubes for both the sink and the shower. I see that he has used that orange stuff that I have used in the past for hydronic heating tubes to connect up the radiator. Am I being tricked here, or is this the way plumbing is done these days?
plastic supply pipes?
- Thread starter Richb2
- Start date
Jadnashua
Retired Defense Industry Engineer xxx
Pex is fairly common these days, and with the price of copper, less expensive. Done properly, with a good product, it should last a very long time. He should have indicated the material choice in his quote. Copper costs more not only because the materials costs have skyrocketed, but it takes longer to cut, fit, and solder it together.
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Sandpiper Plumbing
Plumber
Relax, we've installed miles and miles of pex tubing down here in southwest Florida. Installed properly, it'll last for years! Our water in town is very corrosive and copper only lasts 12-15 years on average so pex or cpvc are our #1 plumbing water supply materials. Pex is fine for hot and cold supply and to shower head but is not recommended for line to tub-spout so...if you're shower only - OK, but make sure your plumber doesn't use pex to a tub-spout.
(PS plumbers: I did once with a copper stub-out for the spout. The fitting-in-the-pipe flow restriction caused water to back up into the shower riser and the shower constantly drips when tub is running. Valve was a Moen Posi-Temp. I called Moen and they told me they only recommend copper or cpvc for tub spout stub-outs and that pex can not be used to feed a tub spout...just so you know!)
(PS plumbers: I did once with a copper stub-out for the spout. The fitting-in-the-pipe flow restriction caused water to back up into the shower riser and the shower constantly drips when tub is running. Valve was a Moen Posi-Temp. I called Moen and they told me they only recommend copper or cpvc for tub spout stub-outs and that pex can not be used to feed a tub spout...just so you know!)
Mikey
Aspiring Old Fart, EE, computer & networking geek
I'm installing 2 Posi-temps in a double shower -- one with a copper line to the tub spout, one with CPVC (I ran out of copper and was too cheap to buy any more). Moen's classy no-reading-required instructions said copper only, so it's somewhat of a relief to hear Moen said OK to CPVC. If I ever get this finished (2 years and counting now) I'll let you know what happens.
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