PEX Piping Newby

[yooperdave]

I just bought a house and wanted to change out a sink only to find no water supply line shut off valves were installed under the sink.
I therefore need to turn off the water to the entire house and install some shut off valves.
The plumber used 1/2" PEX tubing, and I have never worked with PEX.
Is PEX easy to work with? What kind of tools are needed? Any tips or advice?

Thanks,

Yooper Dave

 

[Budweiser John]

Pex is very user friendly, however it does require a hefty investment in specialized tools for crimping the fittings. Most big box stores sell the tools but beware there is a wide range of tool quality and best is better.

B. John.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Pex is very easy to do. I re-did most my copper and converted to PEX. I bought a crimping tool to $40 a Lowes. It is a ratchet type tool, you keep tightening until a light on the tool comes on, then release. I did over 50 connections, and had 0 leaks. Copper on the other hand, I once added a bathroom to the basement, and soldered 15 or so connections. Had to redo 50% of them!

There are 2 types of pex connectors, smooth rings and crimp rings. Smooth looks really nice, but you need a separate tool for each piping size. The crimp rings all use the same tool regardless of the size of the tubing. I went that route so I only had to buy 1 crimping tool.

 

[s219]

Odd that there are no shutoffs installed under the sink!

Yeah, PEX is easy to work with and I've never had leaks in making many hundreds of connections. I have the ring tool -- was about $100 for the tool with dies for various size tubes when I bought it about 15 years ago. It uses copper rings. There is also a side-crimper tool that works with stainless steel rings. I don't have one of those, but it would come in handy in some situations where I can't fit the ring crimper, so I may get a side-crimper at some point.

 

[texasranger556]

Our house has copper so no experience with pex yet. The houses I've seen with pex were newer and had hot and cold manifolds in the basement with dedicated lines run to each faucet with individual shutoffs. Do you happen to have a manifold somewhere?

 

[bcp]

With exposed PEX under the sink, and no future plans for doing PEX plumbing, I would just use a couple of push-fit valves.

Bruce

 

[s219]

That's a good point -- you can buy shark-bite fittings that just push on, no tools needed. I am told they are very reliable.

 

[newbury]

With exposed PEX under the sink, and no future plans for doing PEX plumbing, I would just use a couple of push-fit valves.

Bruce

Third vote for that. Your not enclosing it in a wall so push-fit is an excellent choice.

You do need a tool to cut the PEX unless you are going to gnaw it off

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Old habits die hard. I am still a dedicated copper installer. Older houses all have copper so I am reluctant to mix it up on remods. Conversly on soldering; I have made thousands of copper joints in my life and have had very few leaks. most being in places where it's hard to get around the joint. I let the heat do the work of sweating all around. Then I was a profesional pipefitter for a good part of my life.

Ron

 

[LD1]

Old habits die hard. I am still a dedicated copper installer. Older houses all have copper so I am reluctant to mix it up on remods. Conversly on soldering; I have made thousands of copper joints in my life and have had very few leaks. most being in places where it's hard to get around the joint. I let the heat do the work of sweating all around. Then I was a profesional pipefitter for a good part of my life.

Ron

Ever work with propress? Expensive initianl investment...but great for fixing existing copper. No worries anbout a little corrosion or water messing with you when trying to sweat a fitting, and no dangers of flame in tight spaces