Should I repair or should I replace?

[Spoonula]

I have a 3 season vacation place, and despite my best efforts blowing out the pipes, I had a break this winter. I have a series of galvanized fittings connecting everything. On the bottom is a T, out of which on one end is the garden hose and on the other end is cpvc going to the hot water tank. Moving up, I have a pex line in from my holding tank. Moving up again, there is some old flexible rubber-like hose that goes to my cold water fixtures.

The cpvc is what broke. The threads are stuck in the galvanized T and I cannot extract them.

Would it be smarter to try to take this apart, or should I just cut the pex and rubber-like pipes, remove the garden hose, and reconnect with new fittings? If the second option is the right one, what type of fittings should I use?

 

[Chris]

Rigid make an extractor for the threads that are broken but might not be worth the cost if you can replace the fitting that they are stuck in.

I like to try and keep my materials the same.

 

[frodo]

if you post a picture, we could see the problem and help you

 

[bud16415]

I bought an old two story house a couple years ago. Two baths, kitchen, laundry and 3 outside spigots. I messed around 3 days trying to fix water leaks in a mismatched bunch of stuff like you have. After pulling my hair out what is left of it, I cut the pipe off at the water meter and redid the entire house with PEX in one and a half days. Not one leak. Buy or borrow a good cutter and crimp tool. I like the stainless steel band type and do it once and be done. As it is 3 season give yourself good drain points and a place to connect an air compressor to blow the system dry.

 

[frodo]

I bought an old two story house a couple years ago. Two baths, kitchen, laundry and 3 outside spigots. I messed around 3 days trying to fix water leaks in a mismatched bunch of stuff like you have. After pulling my hair out what is left of it, I cut the pipe off at the water meter and redid the entire house with PEX in one and a half days. Not one leak. Buy or borrow a good cutter and crimp tool. I like the stainless steel band type and do it once and be done. As it is 3 season give yourself good drain points and a place to connect an air compressor to blow the system dry.

^^^ thats how I roll:agree:

 

[VanMark]

Is PEX expensive to use?

 

[bud16415]

Is PEX expensive to use?

I think if you count your labor at anything it saves a lot of money. PEX can be run just like wires thru the wall so you have no connectors anywhere to leak. I ran my hot and cold to two manifolds with valves and ran a dedicated line to each location. They call that a home run. The only place I didn’t do that was the upstairs bathroom.

Compared to copper it is less cost.

 

[nealtw]

I would go with pex and any future repairs if needed will only take minutes.

 

[frodo]

I priced out buying pex, and manifolds, rings and crimp tool

everything for a 2 bath house are around $400.00 from big box orange store

 

[bud16415]

I priced out buying pex, and manifolds, rings and crimp tool

everything for a 2 bath house are around $400.00 from big box orange store

That sounds about right. The only place the price will take off is if you start using shark bite fittings I used them just a couple places and $$$$$.

 

[frodo]

you save money when you make your own manifolds

 

[bud16415]

Here is the manifold I made. They sell a copper manifold and then I added my own ball valves. I stacked mine and offset them and mounted them to a couple boards all on the work bench. Took it down to the basement and selected the angle so that most of the runs came off at a nice angle to run the PEX thru the wall. attached it all to an old panel that was on the wall.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBit...nifold-22788A/202300060?N=5yc1vZbwo5rZ1z0xnja

 

[slownsteady]

Here is the manifold I made. They sell a copper manifold and then I added my own ball valves. I stacked mine and offset them and mounted them to a couple boards all on the work bench. Took it down to the basement and selected the angle so that most of the runs came off at a nice angle to run the PEX thru the wall. attached it all to an old panel that was on the wall.

Bud; could you get a better picture of that, maybe a little closer. The shadows make it tough to see clearly. Thanks tho, it looks pretty doable.

 

[bud16415]

Here is the manifold I made. They sell a copper manifold and then I added my own ball valves. I stacked mine and offset them and mounted them to a couple boards all on the work bench. Took it down to the basement and selected the angle so that most of the runs came off at a nice angle to run the PEX thru the wall. attached it all to an old panel that was on the wall.

Bud; could you get a better picture of that, maybe a little closer. The shadows make it tough to see clearly. Thanks tho, it looks pretty doable.

Sure I will give it a go when I get home. Basically the panel that was on the wall was a piece of ¾ plywood I don’t have a clue why it was there. On top of that was a 2x6 and then a 2x4 I screwed those two together in the shop. A 2x is the right thickness to offset two manifolds so there is room for ball valves and the tubing. Used little 2” lengths of PEX for extensions of the nipples on the manifold then ball valves that have a PEX nipple built into each end. The hot and cold come in the lower right ¾” and the ¾” upper left run up to the 2nd floor bath all the smaller ones do all the first floor as a home run.

If I had it to do over I think I would have ran ½ “ to the upstairs as you waste more water with ¾ waiting for the hot water and you never flush the toilet, run the shower and the sink at the same time anyway.

Where the ¾ goes out at the top left you can see two of the things they sell to make a sharp 90 degree bend. Some are plastic and some steel and they just snap over the bent PEX and hold a tight bend. By the time you build up the manifold you will be good at using the crimping tool.

My outside faucet at the hot tub I tied into the kitchen sink lines and I ran a line from both hot and cold to a T and on to the faucet so I can have hot cold or a mix outside. I plan on doing all the outside faucets like that only doing it right off the manifold. It came in really handy this winter having hot water on the deck. I had some ice one day and hit it with the hot and it shoveled right off.

 

[nealtw]

Bud they now make a frost free for hot and cold.
http://www.moen.ca/pressroom/press-release?id=3006

 

[frodo]

bud..run 3/4 to the shower. not 1/2'' you want volume at your shower head,

lav and terlet do not matter, but the tub shower does

http://screencast.com/t/NVUpUnSrdPzZ

http://screencast.com/t/6bT6cal3B4

look at the ID difference, between copper and pex
1/2'' pex is damn near 3/8'' in nominal size

 

[bud16415]

Better view

 

[bud16415]

Bud they now make a frost free for hot and cold.
http://www.moen.ca/pressroom/press-release?id=3006

Nice find. I may have to buy a couple of those.

 

[bud16415]

bud..run 3/4 to the shower. not 1/2'' you want volume at your shower head,

Looks like i did it right then.

 

[nealtw]

Just to prove, I too can ask dumb questions.
1. Do you get more water from a bigger pipe, if the answer is yes, why.
2. Would 3/4 between the mixer and shower head not be filled enough with 2 1/2" pipes feeding the mixer?

I promise to have more questions no matter the answer.