I work for a company that specializes in the replacement of defective piping and components. Thought it may be worth chiming in to let you all know that I haven’t fielded any calls from anyone stating that they are in need of a repipe as a result of being denied insurance coverage because of PEX concerns. That said, I/we have had countless numbers of these types of calls in connection with both interior and exterior polybutylene. I suppose the trend could change. If it does I will definitely drop in to let everyone know.
On another similar piping topic, I plan to start a post sometime today which will have a link to an article covering premature pinhole leaks in copper. The claim, in short, is that the copper pipe was manufactured over seas and not to the appropriate spec. The article makes it sound like there is a ton of this Chinese copper out there. Wanted to see if anyone has run into this stuff by chance. Posting will be titled Chinese Copper.
This has been a real eye-opener. I had no idea this was now an issue in Florida. Most of the homes built in our area (including our own homes) use a PEX/ manabloc system. I’m beginning to think overhead PVC is the way to go.
Interesting day. Had two agents each call their insurance agents to day about Polylbutylene. One said no it would not be covered, and one said that yes Citizens would insure it
It is more than likely a Florida problem with underwriters. They are looking for any chance to getting out of writing homeowners insurance.
Great …we already have problems with copper in some locals because of negatively charged water. Is there a particular grade of copper K-L M that is at issue ? or just anything from China ?
The over seas manufacturing has to be strictly monitored in my opinion.
This is not the first incident of quality control going substandard in the asean market place.
The only problem I have ever heard about PEX is the fittings, but you can get the good fittings, just don’t shop at home depot. I found a good site here.
Nothing bad about Apollo … just things that can go wrong with pex other than the fittings. Look at the section regarding “running pex”. Lots of things to look for.
I can see how the insurance industry would be concerned. How would the insurance underwriter know which fittings were used. Most plumbing items are bought at the lowest price, which would be china made products/fittings. PEX isn’t the problem. Dezincification is the problem. http://knol.google.com/k/anonymous/facts-about-pex-tubing-and-pex-fitting/19yp2ug8iz123/116#
This is the same problem that occur with polybute. The piping and connectors are fine. It was the installation and the fact that plumbers were not using the correct crimping tools and then the connections fail. I personally handled the Polybute law suits prior to being in this industry and then subsequently handled PEX/Jacuzzi risk management. The carriers can be reasoned with but someone needs to be able to explain it to them carefully.
I can ask the Realtor to ask the insurance agent but what I think has happened in this case is that the buyer(client) found an insurance company to write the policy.
The company that would not write this home with PEX was USAA Insurance Co. If anyone has a connection with anyone at USAA maybe we can get a statement from them.
Check out this poster “WUCHAK” on this web site here scroll down to find and look at the last paragraph
