"Newfie" writes:
Hi...new to working with PEX and am putting in a new bathroom. I need
to add some T's to the 3/4 inch lines and run 1/2 inch lines to sink,
toilet shower etc. I have noticed some fittings sold comes with the
black and gold copper crimp rings. (I know gold is used for
Polybutylene and black is used for PEX).

The Home Depot here sells two PB/PEX fittings, a straight coupler and a
tee. The tee lets you cut a PB line and add a PEX line. The coupler
lets you convert from PB to PEX. Everything else is PEX-only.
The PB/PEX fittings come with the crimp rings, but for other PEX
fittings you need to buy your own rings.

I have also noticed you can
buy the single ear Stainless Steel Clamps.

My questions relates to the clamping/crimping system used. Which is
better and are their recommendations for use of copper vs stainless
rings?

The crimping tool for the copper rings is much more expensive than the
crimper for the single ear stainless rings...any idea why?

The copper crimping tool is a large heavy precision device. It's also
adjustable so you can keep the crimped diameter within specs as the tool
wears. There is a 0.015 inch range of acceptable crimp diameters. It's
expensive to buy, but HD rents them for CDN$8 for 4 hours and CDN$11 per
day.

The stainless ring tool is smaller and lighter. It only has to grab an
"ear" on the ring and crimp that. I don't know much else about it.

If you're going to be doing mixed PB/PEX work, you need the copper
crimper for the PB copper rings anyway. They are a different thickness
from the PEX copper rings, so I don't think you can use the stainless
rings for PB fittings. That, combined with the fact that HD doesn't
rent the stainless crimping tool, made the choice easy for me.

Dave