Worm clamps on PEX?

68malibu383

68malibu383

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I am sure this is against the manufacturer's approved method but would you consider this acceptable (see photo)? This is a hose bib line with several such unions with yellow glue and several worm clamps. Seems to be doing its job but I would not do this. Would you consider it acceptable?
 

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it "may" work, if your water pressure is fairly low, but if it were my house, i'd definitely take that out and put in some proper fittings. the potential cost of water damage if that thing blew apart is not worth the risk.

if you don't have pex tools and want to DIY... they sell a small clamp system for the copper pex crimp rings... it looks kind of like the old stocks that a 19th century criminal would be put in... 2 pieces of metal bolted together. you place them around the fitting, and ratchet it down until the crimp ring is compressed. these are slow, but useful sometimes for tight spaces for regular pex users, but its about the only affordable option if you don't want to buy the good tools, which can be $150-200 for each size for the good ones. usually this cheaper tool will have a few sizes built in, and I see them available for under $40 online from time to time.
 
While the plumbers might cringe, a Sharkbite would work. Just make sure you debur the ends to prevent damaging the o-rings when inserting the pipe into the fitting. There are also some compression fittings designed to join two pieces of pex together - they're somewhat costly being all brass, but the only tool you need is a couple of wrenches. The crimp rings are fairly narrow so that they can fit between the barbs to compress the tubing over the barbs. Trying to compress them on the barbs, which would happen with the much wider clamp, isn't as effective.
 
Pex is way to thick and stiff to crimp with a worm clamp. And are you kidding me about glue??? This CAN'T hold. I would get it out before you have a flood
 
road, house 11-16-21 014.jpg

QUOTE]if you don't have pex tools and want to DIY... they sell a small clamp system for the copper pex crimp rings... it looks kind of like the old stocks that a 19th century criminal would be put in... 2 pieces of metal bolted together. you place them around the fitting, and ratchet it down until the crimp ring is compressed. these are slow, but useful sometimes for tight spaces for regular pex users, but its about the only affordable option if you don't want to buy the good tools, which can be $150-200 for each size for the good ones. usually this cheaper tool will have a few sizes built in, and I see them available for under $40 online from time to time[/QUOTE]

The SS crimping clamps you speak of are not homeowners tools, and are typically made by Oetiker, which clamps have some expansion abilities built in and are absolutely reliable, and hundreds of times faster than the absurd expansion system. Using crimp clamps - I like 2 per fitting- you can build the entire house and not set a single clamp, then reinspect your piping and do it all at once.

To remove, you can file or use a tool to remove a tiny tab, without harming the pipe or fitting. With hand expansion, your hands are dead by the end of the day, not with crimps. In a pinch, end nippers work about as well for the crimp.
 
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The short answer is no. The long answer is hell no. And you must use the pipe manufacturers recommended clamping system that matches their pipe. In other words, no Oteker clamps on Uponor pipe or Uponor rings on Watts pipe. Sharkbites are approved for hack use most everywhere though.
 
Once again ballvalve is suggesting random unorthodox methods.

Two clamps, which manufacturer suggests that?
 
ballvalve said:
View attachment 14811

The SS crimping clamps you speak of are not homeowners tools, and are typically made by Oetiker, which clamps have some expansion abilities built in and are absolutely reliable, and hundreds of times faster than the absurd expansion system. Using crimp clamps - I like 2 per fitting- you can build the entire house and not set a single clamp, then reinspect your piping and do it all at once.
Click to expand...

That's not what I was referring to. I was talking about a tool, not a ring.

THIS is the tool I was referring to, or at least one variation of it. Some are like this, some have a nut you tighten down with a ratchet.

2 rings per fitting "probably" won't hurt anything, but if the manufacturer wanted a wider clamping point, they would have just made the clamps wider, so I don't think I'd advise following this idea.

I only use the copper crimp rings with the proper (and fairly expensive) tools. I don't much care for the expansion ones, or those clamps. For a homeowner, the crimp rings can be a fairly affordable way to go with a simple (but slow and somewhat labor intensive) tool like the one linked above.
 
Tom Sawyer said:
The short answer is no. The long answer is hell no. And you must use the pipe manufacturers recommended clamping system that matches their pipe. In other words, no Oteker clamps on Uponor pipe or Uponor rings on Watts pipe. Sharkbites are approved for hack use most everywhere though.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but nothing unorthodox there, just an IMPROVEMENT. Of late the crimp Oetiker or others have gotten narrower, even the ones sold by all the pex companies. When one clamps a poly pipe on a well barb, you need three to catch all the barbs.

Would not common sense dictate the same standard for pex? the older clamps as hj mentioned were wider and one was barely sufficient. One of the narrower ones catches hardly one of 3 or 4 barbs on the fitting. Lets be honest and recognize that Uphonor created their silly expansion system to make MONEY with a patented system that is a royal pain. One advantage is that their expansion tubes catch ALL of the barbs, thus the same should be performed when using crimps.

I have thousands of uphonor pex connections out there for 20 years, crimped and never a leak. Those oetikers have similiar expansion qualities of the expansion system, so they will not cut into the tube in thermal motion. get me a wider clamp and I'll use one. And NEVER a sh%^&-bite fitting in my walls.
 
You messed up that quote.

I'd like to know why you used 2 clamp on the line marked "??", you're not even sure where the line goes, really?
 
I absolutely agree on the no Sharkbites thing, especially if its going to be buried in a wall. If its exposed in an unfinished basement, I would VERY begrudgingly say maybe to a homeowner.

I use sharkbite caps sometimes to cap off a line while doing work - they're nice for that b/c you can even put them on a dripping line, where the water would cool the pipe too much to solder. But I never use them for permanent connections. I've seen 2 properly installed fittings leak, and 1 blow off completely inside a finished ceiling (I didn't install that one, so can't be sure it was installed correctly, but it blew off about a year after being installed, w/o leaking in the meantime). What a mess that was. I simply don't trust those things.

However, it would be about 1000% better to have a sharkbite than what you have currently, so if those are your two options... still pick option 3 and put it in right :p
 
Sharkbites are fine, they're 10,000 times better than wood glue and hose clamps on pex.
 
Yes, they are better than wood glue and screw clamps, in much the same way that small pox is better than the black plague.
 
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