Uponor PEX problem ALERT

[Nicholasrellim]

Well this is alarming! In 2020 I repiped the house I’m remodeling. After reading and researching, decided the Uponor pex was the deal. We are now in the final stages of this project and now I find out this product is possibly no good! It would be quite the task to redo this. But way easier than dealing with it later. Not even sure if I should be worried.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Well this is alarming! In 2020 I repiped the house I’m remodeling. After reading and researching, decided the Uponor pex was the deal. We are now in the final stages of this project and now I find out this product is possibly no good! It would be quite the task to redo this. But way easier than dealing with it later. Not even sure if I should be worried.

Im not sure you should be worried either if 2 toyota tacomas had blown engines that were a year old and they built a million would you worry . unfortuanately weve got a little bit of crying and whinning but little facts. there are people making money off it that have axes to grind, also a very very few people complaining of issues I do have sympathy for the hardship. I also still belive even if there are a few complaints that Uponor is stand up respected in the field and am bothered by the bashing.
I dont even install pex , I have while working for a few contractors but Ive got no real hate or love of PEX. my home was piped with pex expanded in 2002 no problems and Im not worried but come on it could fail its part of life. copper fails, cpvc fails,. it all fails.
No action or sharing by the crybabys that were bashing I guess they have no intention of sharing anything its been monthes. maybe they got thier check and said screw everyone else about coming to a truthful understanding.
My guess is out of many millions of feet of pipe some had defects

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Nicholasrellim]

Im not sure you should be worried either if 2 toyota tacomas had blown engines that were a year old and they built a million would you worry . unfortuanately weve got a little bit of crying and whinning but little facts. there are people making money off it that have axes to grind, also a very very few people complaining of issues I do have sympathy for the hardship. I also still belive even if there are a few complaints that Uponor is stand up respected in the field and am bothered by the bashing.
I dont even install pex , I have while working for a few contractors but Ive got no real hate or love of PEX. my home was piped with pex expanded in 2002 no problems and Im not worried but come on it could fail its part of life. copper fails, cpvc fails,. it all fails.
No action or sharing by the crybabys that were bashing I guess they have no intention of sharing anything its been monthes. maybe they got thier check and said screw everyone else about coming to a truthful understanding.
My guess is out of many millions of feet of pipe some had defects

Thats about how I’m seeing it. Part of why I picked the Uponor was seeing its wide spread use and the minimal talk of problems. There’s got to be over a billion feet of this stuff out there. Seems like I’ve got about as much chance of hitting the lotto.

 

[JohnCT]

Thats about how I’m seeing it. Part of why I picked the Uponor was seeing its wide spread use and the minimal talk of problems. There’s got to be over a billion feet of this stuff out there. Seems like I’ve got about as much chance of hitting the lotto.

I would never be fortunate enough to hit the lotto, but I'd be the one that would get that one batch out of a billion feet that would be bad...

John

 

[Breplum]

Well this is alarming! In 2020 I repiped the house I’m remodeling. After reading and researching, decided the Uponor pex was the deal. We are now in the final stages of this project and now I find out this product is possibly no good! It would be quite the task to redo this. But way easier than dealing with it later. Not even sure if I should be worried.

I would definitely contact Uponor and or your local Uponor rep

 

[8seconds]

I dont know if any of this is fact except Fergusson not selling the colored PEX A in Oregon state, but there is a you tube video of this problem using pex A in the red or blue coloring. It has something to do with the process of dieing the pipe and its effects on the integrity at the joints. I did a lot of research before starting the bath remodel that I have posted questions on here about. That is when the video popped up. The plumber on You tube shows the crack failures and states there is a class action law suite against uponor for the failures. When I purchased my PEX A, I asked Fergusson plumbing supply about the red and blue colored PEX A and they said they are unable to sell it right now. I went with clear PEX A from Jones Stephens because of this info.

 

[Jeff H Young]

I dont know if any of this is fact except Fergusson not selling the colored PEX A in Oregon state, but there is a you tube video of this problem using pex A in the red or blue coloring. It has something to do with the process of dieing the pipe and its effects on the integrity at the joints. I did a lot of research before starting the bath remodel that I have posted questions on here about. That is when the video popped up. The plumber on You tube shows the crack failures and states there is a class action law suite against uponor for the failures. When I purchased my PEX A, I asked Fergusson plumbing supply about the red and blue colored PEX A and they said they are unable to sell it right now. I went with clear PEX A from Jones Stephens because of this info.

It would be nice for those with a problem to share more details but they post something about how its resolved but most nearly all couldnt be bothered. I think a lawsuit may exist but presence of a lawsuit dosent mean any claims or all of what is claimed is true . you know a lawyer is lying when you see his lips moving LOL.
I think its likely very likely there is a problem with their product just very hard to fathom how large it really is thier are such crooked people out there its hard to belive anything

 

[JohnCT]

.. but there is a you tube video of this problem using pex A in the red or blue coloring. It has something to do with the process of dieing the pipe and its effects on the integrity at the joints....The plumber on You tube shows the crack failures and states there is a class action law suite against uponor for the failures.

I think you're referring to "Integrity Repipe" videos. He shows red (particularly) and blue pipes in his earlier videos, but later videos show white pipe suffering the same fate. A couple of guys on Terry Love forum have seen and posted pics of white Uponor pipe yellowing, cracking, and leaking after only a few years in service.

What we don't know is why. Most Uponor pipe installed in the last two decades have no issues. Personally, I suspect it's batch issues, and the color pipes do seem to suffer more although they simply may have been selling more colored pipe than white. The reason *my* opinion is batch issues is because when houses are repiped, there are sections of Uponor that are yellowed and cracked, and other sections from the same house (same water quality and pressure) are clean white and undamaged. The other possibility is that some sections of this pipe was exposed to sunlight for a length of time. New construction will often leave plumbing exposed before walls are completed, but this of course won't explain copper to PEX repipes on older homes that suffer Uponor PEX failure after a few years. PEX pipe on an existing home repipe won't see any significant daylight unless the plumber kept exposed rolls in the bed of his pickup...

John

 

[Jeff H Young]

I think you're referring to "Integrity Repipe" videos. He shows red (particularly) and blue pipes in his earlier videos, but later videos show white pipe suffering the same fate. A couple of guys on Terry Love forum have seen and posted pics of white Uponor pipe yellowing, cracking, and leaking after only a few years in service.

What we don't know is why. Most Uponor pipe installed in the last two decades have no issues. Personally, I suspect it's batch issues, and the color pipes do seem to suffer more although they simply may have been selling more colored pipe than white. The reason *my* opinion is batch issues is because when houses are repiped, there are sections of Uponor that are yellowed and cracked, and other sections from the same house (same water quality and pressure) are clean white and undamaged. The other possibility is that some sections of this pipe was exposed to sunlight for a length of time. New construction will often leave plumbing exposed before walls are completed, but this of course won't explain copper to PEX repipes on older homes that suffer Uponor PEX failure after a few years. PEX pipe on an existing home repipe won't see any significant daylight unless the plumber kept exposed rolls in the bed of his pickup...

John

I suspect its not all pex or even all colored Pex. I dont know how much Faith I put in "integrety" Repipe and dont question his integrety but just not so sure the info is accurate certainly interesting but i dont belive everything I hear even if its from you tube

 

[JohnCT]

I suspect its not all pex or even all colored Pex. I dont know how much Faith I put in "integrety" Repipe and dont question his integrety but just not so sure the info is accurate certainly interesting but i dont belive everything I hear even if its from you tube

I don't disagree, and I have questioned him on his own youtube channel in the comment section (that he usually replies to), but what he's physically showing on the screen can't be discounted. I think his demonstrations of the pipe he's replaced (that he installed years earlier) are accurate, but his conclusions of what exactly went wrong are certainly suspect and debatable. For instance, he believes it's a chloramine water issue, yet we've seen several samples of a full repipe where only *some* Uponor PEX is yellowed and cracked, and other sections from the same house are white and pliable. Chloramine may have a part, but I don't think it's the full answer. My guess is that maybe it's a batch issue where some batches are susceptible to chloramine burns while other batches are not.

I give my opinion of what I think is going wrong and clearly identify it as opinion only. Integrity is making his own conclusions from observation, but not from laboratory analysis.

It may be many years before we know what happened.

John

 

[Jeff H Young]

I don't disagree, and I have questioned him on his own youtube channel in the comment section (that he usually replies to), but what he's physically showing on the screen can't be discounted. I think his demonstrations of the pipe he's replaced (that he installed years earlier) are accurate, but his conclusions of what exactly went wrong are certainly suspect and debatable. For instance, he believes it's a chloramine water issue, yet we've seen several samples of a full repipe where only *some* Uponor PEX is yellowed and cracked, and other sections from the same house are white and pliable. Chloramine may have a part, but I don't think it's the full answer. My guess is that maybe it's a batch issue where some batches are susceptible to chloramine burns while other batches are not.

I give my opinion of what I think is going wrong and clearly identify it as opinion only. Integrity is making his own conclusions from observation, but not from laboratory analysis.

It may be many years before we know what happened.

John

No disrespect to the guy from Integrety but some of his statements are pointless like telling us we can look at older pipe and a newer one and see they are exactly the same in one video. Well no I cant look at a piece of pipe and tell that they are identical in every respect to thier manufacture and ingrediants .
The thought that the pipe can be sun damaged is accepted by the manufacture and I belive them as well. They tell us not to store in the sun for extended periods those time limits are provided by Uponor.
At the rate info is coming in I see no answers coming in that I can be confident in.

 

[JohnCT]

At the rate info is coming in I see no answers coming in that I can be confident in.

Agree. I would love to be a fly on the wall at Uponor when engineering is talking about this. To be clear, I absolutely understand why Uponor wouldn't be fully transparent about this in an overly litigious world.

John

 

[Jeff H Young]

Agree. I would love to be a fly on the wall at Uponor when engineering is talking about this. To be clear, I absolutely understand why Uponor wouldn't be fully transparent about this in an overly litigious world.

John

At a certain point they might have to disclose or defend themselves. but lack of that info at this point dosent mean they havent handled the problem correctly although it does bring up more questions.

 

[Fitter30]

I am not a plumber, but I don't know why anyone would put any supply plumbing under a slab. It's not really a thing in my area of Canada. I can't imagine the bill for getting someone to tunnel under your slab to fix a leak.

Viega call it Manabloca. A pex manifold so any runs under the slab have no fittings. Uses more tubing but eliminates point of use shut off valves. Can be mounted in a box that looks like a circuit breaker panel.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Viega-50250-VIEGA-1-2-18-Port-PolyAlloy-Crimp-MANABLOC-8-hot-10-cold?utm_source=google_ad&utm_medium=Shopping_ntm&utm_campaign=Shopping_NTM_New_users&gclid=CjwKCAjw_YShBhAiEiwAMomsEAEuCcGI13XhBpVVlREApo7kkJgU6qDNlgOKEd9i73V0DSJs1I4gpxoCvT8QAvD_BwE

 

[Mj23]

I like copper, but thought it would be much more difficult to install that a plastic pipe in an existing house. Legend HyperPure PE-RT has a stated guarantee of 100 years. Yes I know that is crazy but the supplier of the raw material Dow Chemical has been around a long time (over 125 years) and obviously feels that it is longer lasting than ordinary PEX-A.

Keith A.

As posted elsewhere, I am having issues that are similar to yours

Did you have a recirculating pump before you had to re-pipe?

how is legend hyper pure working out for you?