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Copper is great and all until your jerk tenants rip it out for scrap. That's exactly what happened to my mom's rental property a couple of years ago. Had to replace the entire plumbing with something that isn't worth anything at the recycling/scrap yard. Went with pvc I believe.

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  • 4 months later...

I'm late to the party but...Copper is a great, tried and true product if you have a municipal water supply. If you have well water, l would recommend pex 9 times out of 10. Also if you bid new construction jobs in copper and your competitors bids are for pex, you will be home alot. Viega makes a product called fosta pex(FormStay) that has an aluminum jacket on the outside of the pipe that holds its shape really well and can be used on potable water as well as in heating systems. Cpvc water piping is shit in my professional opinion. Pvc is a great material for drain piping. If its installed properly it will outlast the building.

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At work we now go with duraPEX. We do copper and CPVC for tapping into/ altering existing installs; but Pex is the way to go.

Much easier and faster to install. The price is hard to beat. As someone else mentioned, the pipe itself can freeze and expand. It's not supposed to split/ rupture when it does.

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Pex has a greater feet per second flow rating than copper and sometimes can actually be sized differently to add to the savings

Pex will allow contractors to have lower insurance premiums due to not needing to use a torch in a residence

No need for "harmful" flux or solder in the drinking water

Grade A pex (expansion style connection) is pretty burst resistant (from freezing compared to copper)

Pex is more resistant to corrosion, pitting and scaling

Expansion style pex cannot be "dry fit" (less likelihood of leaks).

Crackheads don't steal pex from job sites

If kinked (grade A pex) can be heated with a torch and return to its original state

It's cheaper to purchase and install

Retains more heat in hot water lines due to less heat teansfer

I perfer copper personally but I just like soldering.

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Im a firm believer in Pex, most of my plumbing work is sub contracted but my plumber is on board. 

 

he and i agree on copper anywhere it is exposed or has to support itself in some sort of a freestanding application like in and out of mechanicals, water heaters, whole house water filters etc. I also dont let him stub out of walls with it to shut off valves. it allows too much flex and looks and feels cheap. he transitions to a nail on flange with a fixed copper stub that comes out of the wall, sometimes even a threaded brass pipe with finish to match the fixtures.. when someone goes to twist a shut off valve i want it to feel solid..

 

anywhere where the pex is nailed to the basement ceiling or will be inside walls i prefer Pex for its many advantages.. 

 

one of the areas i do alot of work in has funky water that will actually eat pin holes through the copper from the inside out and cause leaks, we have re-piped several of these older houses with pex. 

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  • 3 months later...

Copper is great and all until your jerk tenants rip it out for scrap. That's exactly what happened to my mom's rental property a couple of years ago. Had to replace the entire plumbing with something that isn't worth anything at the recycling/scrap yard. Went with pvc I believe.

That happened to the house we bought last year. It was a vacant house for a while and had squatters living in it at one point. They ripped out all of the copper water lines and even the electrical. Found that out from some of our neighbors. From what ive seen there is a mix of copper and pex in our house. The house was originally built back in 1957.

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  • 2 months later...

I swear u guys teach me something new everyday I'm on here Thanks guys!! Proto my wife n me were lookin at a modular home while searching for a house it was really nice but I do remember it having a couple water spots on the walls and in kitchen I wonder if that had anything to do with that.

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We actually used to install polybutylene. It was the Pex of the day back in the 80s. There were different grades of the pipe. The stuff my dad installed was a dull grey. There were three different kinds of fittings I remember.(plastic, copper, and brass). Only one house that my dad or grandpa installed it in had problems that I know of. This one house had well water and for whatever reason the plastic fittings deteriated from the inside out. I feel for you though if you have a manufactured house with the stuff. I remember working on a couple with my dad back in the 90's. The polybutylene in manufactured homes was a shiny almost silver looking pipe. That stuff was crazy brittle back then. I remember it would develop little hair line cracks anywhere it bent and spray water out in what looked like a spider web. The only thing you can do is replace it. I guess it was the early 90s when my dad switched to CPVC. He would only use Flowguard Gold CPVC. It had some flex to it and wasn't brittle like a lot of the lower grade pipe. I was going to use FlowGuard Gold CPVC to plumb my house. I did some research and no one in my area was stocking it. I talked to the local supply house they recommended the Zurn Pex. I remember Pex had started showing up back then. So I have known about it being installed for at least 20 years. I did some research and didn't find any real problems reported. I decided to give it a try. It's nice to be able to drive a couple miles up the road and get any fitting I need. I bought a set of Ridgid crimpers and installed it. It installs just like the polybutylene did back in the day. The fittings are all high quality brass and I was sure to check the adjustment on my crimpers. You have to be sure to keep the jaws very clean and not let any dirt get in them. The Pex is by far the easiest to install. I would use schedule 40 PVC for underground water lines and the entrance into the house and Pex after your ball valve.

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