Looks like Polybutylene?

Inspected this house today - built in 1998. I couldn’t get to any spot with markings on it, but it looks like Polybutylene to me. Especially the elbow fitting. I saw it under sinks, toilets, and at the wall to and from the water heater… I’ve just not seen it with a house built after early 90’s, and never seen it this color… help?

Hey Andrew,

In my experience PB isn’t Red.
My guess is that is an early iteration of PEX.
According to internachi PB training the colors of PB included, most commonly grey in color, but can also be white, silver, black or blue.

I’ve personally only seen it in grey.

If you have any more photos look for stamping with “PB2110”

Good luck.

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So you think those PEX rings are on PB pipe and not PEX pipe?

How to identify PB

My thinking is that it is an early PEX as Patrick said - the elbow fitting in the top pic looks like some I’ve seen used in Poly houses. I’ve seen lots of poly here, but like has been said, it’s always been grey and a couple white. These pics were all I could see, and no markings are seen. Believe me, I had my head and shoulders inside the cabinet under the sink, looking! I just don’t see many houses here built in the 90’s using PEX, and for the water heater, they brought it up the wall, then from the wall to the heater, was copper, typical of a lot of poly installations I’ve seen.

Andrew, I’m in your area, PEX from late 90’s is in many locales.
Looks like DURA PEX.

Kitec, PlumbBetter, IPEX AQUA, WarmRite, Kitec XPA.
I am leaning towards IPEX AQUA

Any more pics?

No more pics - it was mostly hidden, but amazingly, I can’t remember seeing this stuff before in over 15 years… and I saw it in another house today! I got a much better look at it, and it is PEX. Thank you for the responses.

Thanks for verifying it for us all, Andrew! :smile:

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