On Oct 22, 4:37 am, wrote:
I had the opportunity to work with PEX for the first time last week.
I personally dont much care for the stuff. I want solid pipe in my
house. However a friend is building a summer cottage and dont know
anything about plumbing. I said I'd give him a hand. He was talked
into PEX at the building supply store. I suggested he return the
stuff and get copper but he said that he was told that the PEX wont
crack if it freezes. I have serious doubts about that being true.
Even if the PEX itself dont crack, the fittings will.

Anyhow, he said he wanted to use it, so I had to learn how myself
since I never used it. He did not have the tool to tighten those
clamps and the tool was $100 for EACH size (1/2 and 3/4). So instead
of using them, he returned them and bought some snap in plastic
fittings that hold the pipe tight once it's pushed in. Seeing those
things made my skin crawl. How in the heck that can be considered a
tight fitting is beyond me. He does not have the well drilled yet so
I wonder if that will hold up or not. He just wanted to get the pipes
in the walls so he could sheetrock them.

Anyhow, when I looked at those tools to crimp the rings in the store,
I saw there are two different tools and two different types of clamps.
One clamp is simply a ring of steel that apparently just gets smaller
once it's in the tool. The other clamps have a piece that sort of
overlaps on the edges and looks somewhat like an automotive hose
clamp. That left me asking which is better, and why? Come to think
of it, why cant hose clamps be used rather than spending all that
money on those tools?

Like I said earlier, I dont put any faith in PEX. To me it seems like
plumbing a house with garden hoses. I'll stick to real metal pipes
for water supply and pvc for drains. I run a farm and use garden
hoses for livestock water tanks, in which they are left on all the
time in warm weather. I have seen far to many of these garden hoses
split and blow up outdoors. Of course outdoors is not as bad as
indoors. PEX might be a little stiffer, but it still is a hose, not a
true pipe. Of course these days everything is plastic and everyone
wants to save a buck. Although in this case the PEX was cheap but
those snap in fittings were close to $5 each. I think copper would
have been comparable in price and a much better choice, but each to
their own......

PEX has been used successfully in this country for many years. Much
longer in Europe. Not sure what the connection between garden hoses
and PEX is. You don't have a PEX garden hose do you? Kinda like
comparing galvanized to copper or something like that. 5 or 10
years ago, plumbers would tell me that using PEX vs. copper was a
wash, copper having lower material cost but higher labor cost. Now
with the sky high cost of copper, I don't think anyone in their right
mind is plumbing with all copper any more. When copper first came
out, I'm sure there were people just like you who called it junk and
stuck to their tried and true lead.

Your friend made the right choice. Do tell him though to air test his
system before he covers it up and save himself some grief. (this
would be true with copper too.) If he can't figure out how, he
probably shouldn't be plumbing.