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its been debated in forum's all over the internet. the realities of most building today is that PEX is the standard. My newly remodeled house now has it everywhere, we pulled out copper.
do I think its really superior? no in most respects. besides install, I really only see 2 benefits. it won't burst if frozen. It has greater insulation properties compared to copper.
if you're doing a repair, I'd just keep copper. if you're running a large volume of material.... Pex is definately something to consider.
well, right now i'm just having some minor work done, but eventually, i need to replace the plumbing in the basement due to old pipes with a lot of mineralization buildup. so this will just be a small job, but maybe i could do more now. i like the insulation properties of course, but that's not going to make a huge deal since the only places i have any issues anyways is the upstairs bathrooms, which is just a matter of clearing out the old water first. lol
The argument that pex wont freeze is a myth. I always heard that and believed it till I bought a home that had both. It was a Foreclosed house that had a flood issue after burst pipes. It was a ranch house that had the basement finished with pex. The rest of the house had copper except for the laundry room in the basement, that was original and had exposed copper. I found 4 different burst pipes and ALL 4 were pex. no copper needed repair. One of the burst was a little 1 inch long section of pex that looked to be a earlier repair in the copper.
That being said if ,and I do, I have a choice I will go with pex. Just way less and much easier to work with. And I do trust it. I was one of those that would go with copper but no more.
Anyone that says any kind of pipe "won't" freeze is someone I'm not asking for advice from anymore. ^_^
However, PEX is less likely to burst from freezing than other pipes. And whoever put in that 1 inch section of pipe to repair copper had no clue what they were doing. There are many ways to repair copper pipe, but that ain't one of the right ones.
As my plumber siad copper is tried and true system. But now days can be really prohiitive i ocst. Done right PEX works well wit some advatages i distrbution easy and of course labor. The joints have caused the most problems. Yes he said it can freeze and like most materials when frozen and expanded can cause later problems.
Before you install any, make sure PEX is allowed in your communities building codes. There are still many places in the US where PEX isn't allowed yet. Some places are quite backwards when it comes to new construction materials and their codes. I know of a town near me that didn't allow DRYWALL of all things (they required real plaster) until sometime in the 1990's.
PEX is fine and according to some, can outlast the lifespan of copper.
IMPORTANT: there are different manufacturing processes utilized when making PEX, therefore the different kinds of PEX are: PEX-a, PEX-b and PEX-c. Be aware that not all PEX is created equal.
Stay away from manufacturers like Zurn - they've had some problems with their PEX (the fittings).
My house was repiped with PEX (?) here in Central Fl. It is all overhead and I need to get up there and see if the strapping is still goood. We had several leaks in the copper because they didn't put the right stuff around the pipe when it came up through the foundation so it corroded out. What a mess. It also will leak in the ground (copper). Someone told me that when water rushes through the pipe, it causes a small vibration and over time, with the florida sand abrading it, it can develop leaks. May be true, I had them.
Anyway, it sure was cheaper. It's been overhead about 10=15 years now.
I did a lot of research into this before choosing PEX for our house.
PEX will burst if it freezes, but it is slightly flexible and therefore resists freeze damage much better than copper.
There are two common types of PEX connectors. One is better than the other, but less popular with plumbers becuase the tool costs soemthing like $700.
PEX should be installed in a manifold system as mentioned above. If it is put in trunk and branch, you miss out on one of the benefits of PEX. You also can lose some flow with one type of connectors because of restriction at the connectors. With trunk and branch you have too many connectors and therefore too many possible places to fail.
It is much easier to have mistakes or failures with coopper. Pipies fail at joints. With copper, every joint must be soldered. If not soldered properly, it will leak. With pex you can avoid joints. If it is done correctly, you have a straight run of pipe from the manifold to the device. No joints at all in the run.
Copper can be corroded by crertain types of water. That is rare. Copper can put copper in your water. This is so tiny that it is not a problem unless your house sits with water in the pipes for a very long time and you fail to let the water run through the pipes before drinking it.
Copper is very expensive.
Copper will only burn at very high temperautres. PEX burns at lower temperatures. Both emit poisonous gasses.
PEX looks awful. IF you have exposed pipes, switch to Copper where the pipes become visible.
It is not a problem to attache PEX into a copper system or vice versa. Just be careful that the connections are done properly. I love the new snake bite (compression type) connectors. Anyone cna now connect plumbing pipes. It is hard to mess up with those, but they are expensive.
It is very easy to mess up when soldering copper pipe. Also you cna se tthe house on fire if you are not careful. Do not think that a licensed plumber is going to prevent bad joints or even fires. They mess up all the time, especially the stoned flunkies that they like to drop off at your house to perform the work while they go golfing or something.
They are pretty sure that PEX will last almost indefinitely. Copper is good for about 50 years if you are lucky. Sometimes it goes longer, sometimes shorter. With PEX as long as the connectors do not fail then it should be fine.
Conceptually, copper is more resistant to nails or screws being driven into it becuase it is harder. However PEX is not as rigide and it is possible for it to just move out of the wat of a large nail. IN practice, they are both about the same. Nails and screws readily penetrate both. In every case where I or someone messed up and put a nail or screw in contact with either pex or copper, we got a hole in the pipe. At least in my experience, no theory holds up. Neither one resists nails.
Another option is CPVC. Some places do nto allow it but there is no good reson for this. There were some failuers in the past with similar materials, but CPVC is an execellent material. However it is fitted together like Copper (excpet that it is gluded, not soldered) and cannot be treaded through walls like PEX can.
Overall, I can see no reason to conitue to use copper, especially given the current cost. The only people that I know who still favor Copper are old stubborn plumbers who do not want to change and want ot make certain thaat tehir old skills remain valuable.
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