PEX Advice (Best Crimping Method?)

[aNYCdb]

Finally got the water going at the new cabin only to discover that pipes everywhere (throughout basement and crawlspace) seem to be busted. Based on the sheer number of issues I'm thinking it makes sense to just replum the runs using PEX. For the folks that have done this before I had some questions.

1. Does it make sense to install a manifold to manage the water distribution.

2. What crimping method is recommended? It seems like the most prevalent is the copper ring approach, but what is typically considered the best approach.

3. I'm just re-pluming the main runs and didn't plan on touching the final couple of feet (copper), so does it make sense to sweat in a PEX connection to the copper or use one of those shark-bite adapters?

4. Anything else I need to consider?

 

[buffalo]

I'm probably not much help but I did my when basement in uponor pex in lesss than a day . Of course I had acess to the tool which I borrowed . A manifold would have been alot more running of plastic in my case . One hot and one cold main down the center of my basement and tapped off with 1/2" where needed .

I did sweat adapters into any existing copper lines that I needed to . Like the bathroom sink I dint want to bring the pex through the floor .

 

[jeffmattero76]

For crimping, the copper rings work great, but it is sometimes difficult to get the tool to work correctly in tight spaces. The cinch rings use a much smaller tool.

I did the same as the last poster when i had to replumb one of my rentals because they stole the copper. Just run a length of red pex and a length of blue pex the entire length of the house. Then, wherever you need a tee, just cut the main run and add the tee. I did solder on female fittings on the copper stubs. If the plumbing will remain exposed you could also use sharkbites but thwy are more expwnsive. Sharkbites are approved to be "buried" behind drywall, and i know plenty of guys who do that routinely. However, i am a slow adapter and do not trust burying them.

 

[bud16415]

I bought an old home 3 years ago that sat 2 winters without heat in northern PA and I had a million leaks. I cut the pipe at the line coming into the house and ran ¾ to the water heater in and out and to a hot and cold manifold I made myself. I will look and see if I can find some pictures of it. It is made from the copper ones you can buy with no valves. From there I mounted all my shut off valves and ran homeruns to almost everything with ½ inch. The exception is I came off the other end of the manifold with ¾ and went up to the second floor bathroom and then branched off for the toilet, tub and sink. If I had it to do again I would have made that run as ½ as well as all the ¾ did was make it longer time to get hot water on the second floor wasting more water. I should have used the ¾ run to my outside water where more flow is better. I did join a hot and cold with valves for each outside faucet and if I want warm or hot water out there I can flip a couple valves in the basement and have it. It works really well at my hot tub as I can top it off with hot water or like yesterday I used pure hot to spray off the ice out there and clean the filter.

One place I didn’t want to disrupt the end of the old copper the washing machine and I used SharkBite couplers and they work great just $$$. The other place I used them was they sell a flex Water heater connector with a braid covering and sharkbite about a foot from the tank. This is going to make tank replacement a simple job.

The fittings I like best are the stainless bands that crimp as they are really strong and the one tool will do all sizes of bands. After they are crimped and they seal you can still rotate the connector. That tool also fits in the tightest spots. I bought the crimp tool and the PEX cutter for under 50 bucks. I did a whole house and didn’t have one single leak.

If you look at this thread and post number 24 you can see a photo of my setup.

http://www.houserepairtalk.com/showthread.php?t=17318&page=3

I have added a few more runs after that photo.

You can get PEX adapters so that you can go straight to things like sinks and such but PEX is stiff enough it makes connections harder to do so most of them like the kitchen sink I still added the last hose a flex piece similar to how you would do with solid pipe. the difference is use the PEX ball valves rather than those cheap little shutoffs IMO. That is if you even want a shutoff other than the basement one. I put shutoffs here and there just to make it easier in the future to work on things. You make the call on that.

Good luck. PEX is fun.

Oh I did all white just simpler than buying twice the rolls. Get some red electrical tape and label the ends of the hots. And the corner benders work great some shown in the pic.

 

[KULTULZ]

Oh I did all white just simpler than buying twice the rolls.

Get some red electrical tape and label the ends of the hots. And the corner benders work great some shown in the pic.

...scribble...scribble...scribble...

My first newly learned FACTOID of THE DAY... :thumbup:

 

[beachguy005]

The nice thing about using a manifold is it allows you to isolate any section you're working on and not have to shut off all the water. I ran homeruns to all locations and to work on a shower, it was off the day at the manifold but everything else worked.
Makes the women in your life happy.

 

[bud16415]

The other nice thing about home runs is you can label it all in one place and when you are not home anyone that you show where it is will know what to shut off quickly.

 

[aNYCdb]

If you look at this thread and post number 24 you can see a photo of my setup.

http://www.houserepairtalk.com/showthread.php?t=17318&page=3

I have added a few more runs after that photo.

I love your manifold setup. Can I ask a stupid question where do the outlets (what I'm assuming is 3/4") on the two manifolds go? Also does it make sense to put the cold water source for the Boiler/HW through the manifold and then loop it back to the hot?

 

[bud16415]

I love your manifold setup. Can I ask a stupid question where do the outlets (what I'm assuming is 3/4") on the two manifolds go? Also does it make sense to put the cold water source for the Boiler/HW through the manifold and then loop it back to the hot?

Those two larger lines run to the second floor bathroom and then split off up there to the toilet, tub and sink. I didn’t run my cold to the manifold and then back to the WH and then back to the hot manifold but you could if you wanted and depending on where it was located. My city water comes in and thru a meter from the street the WH was right close on the way to the manifold so I just put a tee on the supply line as it went past the WH to feed it. I have a main valve to shut the house down and that is good if I need to replace the WH.

I built the whole manifold on the workbench and attached it to some scrap 2X to get the offset so all the valves would open and close and miss each other. Screwed the whole thing to a piece of plywood attached to the wall at an angle because that was the direction all the PEX had to run thru a hole in an old stone wall that divides the basement. You can mount the manifolds however works best. I liked the idea of having the pairs of valves together on each run.

 

[aNYCdb]

Those two larger lines run to the second floor bathroom and then split off up there to the toilet, tub and sink. I didn’t run my cold to the manifold and then back to the WH and then back to the hot manifold but you could if you wanted and depending on where it was located. My city water comes in and thru a meter from the street the WH was right close on the way to the manifold so I just put a tee on the supply line as it went past the WH to feed it. I have a main valve to shut the house down and that is good if I need to replace the WH.

So that brings me to my next question. I was going to do 1/2" runs to each room (bathroom 1, kitchen, bathroom 2, laundry) and just use T's for the different fixtures in the bathrooms. I was assuming that nobody is going to be taking a shower and using the sink at the same time and that 3/4 would mean the hot water would take longer to heat up.

 

[bud16415]

Correct and I mentioned that same thing in my first post. If I had it to do over I would use the ¾ for my outside water where max flow would be a good thing at least for cold.

Frodo our resident plumber I remember telling me some good points about having the ¾ but right now I don’t remember what they were.

When I did mine there wasn’t a lot of information on here about PEX and it underwent some problems early on if I remember. I was moving in this house with the plan on patching a couple leaks in the old plumbing and each time I fixed one leak I found two more. After two days of messing around I said that’s it I’m starting from scratch with PEX. I found a old plumber Bo working at Home Depot and he was so helpful. 50 years in the trade and didn’t need a job as much as he wanted to help people. I still try and give him a hug when I see him lol, but he says none of that.

 

[bud16415]

The nice thing about home runs is you don’t have connectors in the walls. Run the PEX just like it was wires.