In article ,
says...
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(N. Thornton) writes:

Hi

It seems crazy to me to save an hours work and fit something that may
flood the place 20 years later. I wouldn't touch it myself.

I'd be dubious about the longevity of the o-ring seal.
Normally, I see up to perhaps ~20 years life of those
in similar circumstances.

The future can seem a long way off, but it comes anyway. Imagine if
you'd fitted pushfit in 1972, thinking 'millennium? hah' and now got
flooded from it. Not for me thanks.

Proper pipework fittings are
a) known to work well from experience
b) have a very long life
c) are a bit more work, but not much.

d) need [more] skilled workforce to correctly assemble.
This is the big one -- plumbers have become impossible to get
hold of. (A friend having an extension built has been told by
the builder that he will not be able to get a plumber to do
the plumbine parts, due to extremely short supply.) A less
skilled workforce can probably do a more reliable pushfit
installation than they could a soldered copper one.

Yup, tho compression would be as easy as pushfit, skill wise. A
compressed metal ring should last way better than a rubber washer.


Personally, as my DIY time is free and I can do soldered
copper fittings without any problems, that is what I use.
However, I can see a market for pushfit.

Me too, but once you understand the ins and outs of it I still can't
see a reason to choose it. I suspect it may become one of those no-nos
like aluminium wiring. They seemed like a good idea at the time, but
with a bit more thought we could have avoided them. I can see plumbers
in 30 years saying 'pushfit? well you'll need that replumbed for your
insurance to be valid'

I tend to agree. What the makers seem to be saying is it has roughly
the same lifespan as elctrical wiring (give or take a decade or 2).
Thus in future having a house re-plumbed for insurance purposes will be
as standard a proceeedure as re-wireing is now.

I think i'll carry on doing what I'm doing now - use pushfit when in a
hurry on easily accessable areas and copper when doing a proper job.

Thanks to everybody for their contributions.

Peter.