If I had copper from the 1950’s, I might agree with you. The crap they sell nowadays isn’t worth the money they are asking. Items for thought.
It isn’t the pex tubing with the problems. It was the connectors or fittings. Nothing wrong with the tubing itself.
Copper splits when it freezes. PEX doesn’t. I have had a 2 foot section filled with water and capped with no air bubbles sitting in my garage chest freezer. Been there for two years. I take it out once a week and let it completely thaw, then put it back in the freezer. No leaks, no splits, no water loss, no air bubbles. Try that with a piece of copper… once is all it will take and it is split.
Copper can corrode and then fails. PEX doesn’t.
Copper has issues with dissimilar metals. PEX doesn’t.
Copper cannot be snaked into a wall during replacements. PEX can.
Zurn did not invent PEX. They made fittings and connectors to be used with PEX. Those failed, not the tubing.
PEX was made by accident in British labs in the 1930’s. It was slowly developed but has been in heavy use in Europe since the 1970’s with no problems.
Polybutylene also was not invented by Zurn. It was invented and distributed by Shell Oil Company and Hoechst Celanese Corporation. It was invented in 1975, 40 years after PEX.
NASA is developing a reinforced polyethylene for use in the shuttle and on long voyage spacecraft. It is 10x stronger than aluminum, lighter and absorbs cosmic rays must better.
Come out of your copper digging cave and into the light.
Stephen there are good sides to all the building materials being used today. I look for longevity in product or a building technique.
I myself can not see Pex lasting 50 years without problems and failures.
When you crimp the plastic it becomes brittle over time.
Average home in Montreal Quebec is 333.00.
So where you take short cuts in building you have to repair it after.
Re plumbing a home is more costly than you could imagine. There are plumbers in the Chicago area that only do replacement of polyB. I watched a documentry on it. 25-50 thousand!!!
A plumbing system should last 2 generations or 70 years to be of value, not built in obsolescence like polyB and Pex. The older homes I have restored are 120 to 180 years old and the plumbing systems are exact the age of the home. Now that’s value !!
I am saying this because a home should be built to last and not be thought of as disposable.
Just my view Steven.
Sorry about the mix up with Zern. It was a small article I read that lead me to believe that Zurn where the North American manufactures of said product.
As for European and North American building standards. I believe Europeans have this technique down better than we do. Just my opinion.
Interesting. Sounds like price gouging to me. I just replumbed my son’s house with PEX. 2250 sq ft. It took me longer to cut and remove the galvanized pipes than it did to run all new lines. 2.5 baths, kitchen and bar. Total cost of the PEX and PEX fittings? Less than 300 dollars and I have enough pipe left over to do 1/2 of my new house.
PEX does not become brittle when you crimp it. Maybe plastic does, but not all plastic is polyethylene. Polybutylene is not PEX. You want to push the defects of one on to another.
And if you say you have 180 year old homes with original copper plumbing, I call BS. From COPPER.ORG… “The earliest indoor systems used cast iron, steel, galvanized steel, lead or brass, but an inexpensive, easy-to-produce, longer-lasting pipe material — thin-wall copper tubing — created a revolution that helped modernize the nation.** Introduced around 1927**, copper tubing eventually grew to account for about 90% of indoor water piping. To date, more than 5.7 million miles of copper tubing have been installed in homes and commercial buildings in this country.”
Keep trying. Your arguments are not based in fact.
No No Stephen. Not cooper in old homes.
Now I looked into pex just now and have a better understanding of the material. I only started seeing pex in the past 18 months in Montreal Quebec. That’s at the box stores I am talking about.
I see the 200 year rating on the material. I see all the its advantages do not get me wrong.
I am just being skeptical I guess and see you are right having used the product before.
I see how Europeans have been using pex for 40 years now ( 1970 ), and have been using it in radiant floor heating systems.
It will take me time to get use to it.
It is interesting and will look further into this product and watch for any positive or negative effects from friends and equate myself further.
Thank you for catching me up on this product Stephen. Good work mate.
Thanks…Robert
