PEX-b brass fitting failure

[Sparky617]

I helped a friend over the weekend repair a plumbing leak in his relatively new (10 year old home) with PEX-b plumbing. He has slightly acidic well water. When we cut into the ceiling this is what we found, as soon as I cut the 1/2" PEX to remove the bad fitting it fell apart. It was a brass internal T with copper crimp clamps. Has anyone run into this? We're kind of wondering it this happening at every fitting in the house? For now, I'm recommending he turn the main off whenever he leaves the house for an extended period of time and look at getting a filter to move the water closer to neutral on the pH scale. I think right now it is in the low 6 range which makes it slightly acidic. It might not be a bad idea to install one of those flow detectors that shuts off the water if it senses a leak. We hate to think about opening up the walls and ceilings hunting for every fitting the plumber used. As an aside, I really like the home run design when using PEX, only having fittings at the device using the water and at the manifold. Much easier to shut off water in the event of a leak and minimal fittings inside the walls and ceilings.

 

[Sparky617]

Anyone installed one of these?

https://waterheroinc.com/guide-to-a... water shut-off,damage that water leaks cause.

 

[bud16415]

I agree the homerun method is what I used as well. I have a couple T’s but they are under sink and locations that are not covered. Just like you don’t want electrical J-box buried it should be the same for fittings in PEX. Just not a code violation in the case of PEX.

I have seen the leak detection things used like with a water heater in a pan or something but that takes a monitor at each place you could have a leak. I don’t know how it would tell water usage from a leak.

 

[Sparky617]

With the leak detection it has to go on for some time before it shuts off the water. Say a washing machine hose broke and you were spraying water all over for an extended period of time. They shut down, now the question becomes how does it decide when it is normal like you're watering your grass for a couple of hours. Most water usage, with the exception of irrigation is relatively short in nature. Even filling a washing machine only takes a couple of minutes. Maybe you just bypass it.

PEX makes doing a home run system really easy and not terribly expensive. Fittings can easily exceed the cost of piping with PEX. Doing a home run with copper would be very expensive and labor intensive. Running PEX is like running electrical cables. We had the problematic gray plastic pipes in our last house, we always shut off the water when we went away for more than a day. At this house with copper, we just typically shut off the water to the washing machine. Though I now have a ball valve on my water main so shutting off everything is easy. I replaced a gate valve a few months ago, those can be problematic.

Our City water can detect unusual water usage within short time and can shut off the water remotely. I can go on line and see my water usage on an hourly basis.

 

[bud16415]

The only mistake I made in doing PEX in our home was I didn’t want to run 3 homeruns to the upstairs bath and I knew the branch off point would have access so I ran one run. Fearing the length and flow and three things connected I used the free end of the manifold to make the run and I did it in .75 instead of .5. All that really accomplished was it takes longer to get hot water out of the shower or sink and wastes water. If I did it again it would be .5 all over.

I have 3 outside locations and I combined both the hot and cold just past the manifold and normally leave the hot turned off. It is pretty handy to have hot available outside when you need it. just takes a trip to the basement. At first I thought I could blend them and get warm outside water and that does work. But I found if you leave it set that way the hot back feeds for some reason and warms the cold water in the house. Check valves would solve the problem but I haven’t done that.

 

[billshack]

Anyone installed one of these?

https://waterheroinc.com/guide-to-a... water shut-off,damage that water leaks cause.

yeah , they have been out for a while .
also i do not like pex b rather pex a wisbro , the fitting are full sized not reducer

 

[Sparky617]

yeah , they have been out for a while .
also i do not like pex b rather pex a wisbro , the fitting are full sized not reducer

If I were plumbing a house from scratch I would probably invest in the tools to deal with PEX-a, but the chances of me doing a new house from the ground up are pretty slim. The house has PEX-b so we needed to deal with what was used when it was built. Since he has 3/4" running up to the bathroom with a 1/2" branch going to the toilet, I doubt that the restriction of a PEX-b fitting is going to make a significant difference in perceived water flow. It wasn't built with manifolds which would have reduced the number of fittings significantly. More piping, but fewer fittings.

 

[[email protected]]

I installed a Moen Flo valve a few years ago. Takes a month to set flow through fixtures but then shuts off the water immediately if it senses unusual flow or even minor drip. Cell phone operated, easily shut off if filling a swimming pool etc. sensors are available the can be placed at the water heater, washing machine, etc. shuts off flow immediately. Once a month sends a review to see monthly usage. Very pleased. Sensative, has shut off water many times till I got used to it's usage. Easily turned back on with cell phone.