Please help! PEX newbie.

I'd like to install PEX in my full-gut remodel of two bathrooms for a number of reasons. One of the major ones is fewer possible points of failure--if done right!

I will be running PEX to a bath, a shower, a tub/shower, three sinks, two toilets, and a washing machine. The bathroom is on the second floor. The well and water purification system is directly below.

My idea is to install a Manabloc manifold and to have minimal connectors between the PEX and the fixtures, all of which I want accessible with minimal disruption of walls, etc. What is the best way to make each of these connections?

How does one attach pex to a shower or a tub? Sinks and toilets seem straightforward, but which attachment method is the most reliable?

--Rey

Use the search feature first!!!

I think most would prefer the wirsbo fittings, but for the DIY kind of person, stick with the quality crimp rings/fittings and good pipe and you'll be fine.

I did, and the replies to the person posting about the shower weren't as helpful as I'd hoped.

Which crimp.rings are quality, with the class action lawsuit going on?

And how can I do the showers/tubs so that the change from copper to PEX--I'm assuming there should be a change??? that wasn't clear!--is accessible.

rey said:

I did, and the replies to the person posting about the shower weren't as helpful as I'd hoped.

Which crimp.rings are quality, with the class action lawsuit going on?

And how can I do the showers/tubs so that the change from copper to PEX--I'm assuming there should be a change??? that wasn't clear!--is accessible.

Click to expand...

Use copper crimp rings,they are black in color. Some shower/tub valves are sweat and some are thread. Pex makes fittings for both types..

John

Pex

You use whichever type of adapters fit your shower valve. We cannot see it so we cannot tell you which to use. If you are doing a complete repipe, I assume you had galvanized, there is no other reason to be redoing it, and if so, then you need MIP to PEX adapters.

The crimp rings were not the problem in the class action...it was the brass barbed connectors as far as I know...that is why the Wirsbo is recomended...they use plastic barbed connectors...

I am about to begin a similar project. Well, I am neck deep in it, but about to begin the pex install part. I went with the Wirsbo/Uponor system. The expander tool isn't terribly expensive (~$250 new) and you can make up the price because the rings are so cheap. When you are done with your project, you can sell your tool on **** and probably get a very good chunk of your money back.

hj said:

You use whichever type of adapters fit your shower valve. We cannot see it so we cannot tell you which to use. If you are doing a complete repipe, I assume you had galvanized, there is no other reason to be redoing it, and if so, then you need MIP to PEX adapters.

Click to expand...

There is another reason--and that's that I'm moving the wall that all the plumbing is in.

Everything's copper now. Even the VENT is copper. Dat's a big, verra expensive hunk of copper in my wall!

Everything's moving by all of 18", and I'm adding a tub to an area that's just a shower now. It's all moving closer to the supply, too. The pipes are 45 years old, and we are on well water. With any luck, we won't be opening the wall again for another 45 years, plus.

Would you not change out the copper, then? Would you simply shorten what there is, and add as needed?

Depending on your water supply, copper could last many decades. I think I'd probably just shorten the pipes and do it in copper. PEX is great if you have to go around a bunch of things, since you can do it without fittings. And, can be faster, and if you're paying, that means money saved.

Recycle the old copper, it will help offset some costs.

I'll see what the insides of the pipes look like.

I'm so torn on this!

THANK YOU all, BTW.