cpvc plumbing

[paulharvey]

It amazes me to see people saying PEX over CPVC. I'm been out of the commercial, multi family, and residential construction for about 5 years, but in this area PEX is only used in mobile homes. You won't find PEX in any site build homes or buildings, only PVC to the house and CPVC inside. Copper is nice but price has pushed it out of use except from the shower mixer valve to show and bath heads.

 

[Eldubya]

In my part of the world (Western BC) I beleive CPVC has been banned for years. It apparently breaks down when exposed to chlorinated water and becomes too brittle. (so I've been told) Had it in a house I bought 5 years ago and had a heck of a time finding transition fittings that would go from CPVC to either PEX or copper.
It's PEX all the way for me!

 

[farmer2009]

When storing PVC or CPVC glue turn the cans upside down. The glue will dry in any leaks of the lid sealing the can. It'll last a lot longer that way.

CPVC is the standard around here. Just starting to see PEX used. No off taste or anything. Goes in pretty fast.

 

[aczlan]

In my part of the world (Western BC) I beleive CPVC has been banned for years. It apparently breaks down when exposed to chlorinated water and becomes too brittle. (so I've been told) Had it in a house I bought 5 years ago and had a heck of a time finding transition fittings that would go from CPVC to either PEX or copper.
It's PEX all the way for me!

I ran into that this spring. Did a bathroom remodel, removed the showerhead (leaving the angled pipe), then removed the sheetrock and then the two screws holding the CPVC drop ear elbow to the wall.
As soon as I took the screws out, the elbow broke off of the pipe and fell to the floor...
Never again will I use CPVC. PEX is faster, cleaner (no fittings every 10 feet) and works great for my uses.

Aaron Z

 

[Gary Fowler]

I used (contractor used) all copper with closed cell foam insulation on all the pipe which was ran underground and up thru the slab. The insulation keeps soil and concrete from contact with the pipe plus insulates the hot water line to which I have a recirculating pump attached at the water heater. This may cause a bit of extra electricity to keep the line hot but I have instant hot water which conserves our precious water resource. It sure beats what I had at my previous house where the master bath was at least 60 feet of line away from the heater and took it seemed like forever to get hot water from the faucet. In the photo you can see the water lines protruding from the soil prior to slab being laid.

 

[2014Newbee]

I used to do brand new residential plumbing here in Houston about 10 years ago, back then pex was mostly used on a customer want basis and when running water to an island sink under the slab, later on it seemed custom homes (expensive big mansions) were the ones ordering it. I was always pro pex and yes the manifold to control each outlet definitely is nice not just for future repairs, gives the owners a better way to stop water leaks should one develop.

Now I only do plumbing repairs for family or real close friends and if I have to replace water lines I try to use pex as much as I can, not just because of the ease of installation all the pros that have already been mentioned here. No taste smell or anything, maybe it was just a bad batch some people had.

 

[ishiboo]

It amazes me to see people saying PEX over CPVC. I'm been out of the commercial, multi family, and residential construction for about 5 years, but in this area PEX is only used in mobile homes. You won't find PEX in any site build homes or buildings, only PVC to the house and CPVC inside. Copper is nice but price has pushed it out of use except from the shower mixer valve to show and bath heads.

You (or your entire area) are out of the loop.

PEX is everywhere now. Residential, commercial, whatever. I would think most places would look at you funny if you planned CPVC over PEX.

Underground gas to the home is now all PE as well, with a tracer wire if it's not built-in.

 

[paulharvey]

You (or your entire area) are out of the loop.

PEX is everywhere now. Residential, commercial, whatever. I would think most places would look at you funny if you planned CPVC over PEX.

Underground gas to the home is now all PE as well, with a tracer wire if it's not built-in.

PE and HDPE is common for gas, as well as from water main Corp stop to meter (depending on individual utility, one fairly major one doesn't allow any PE over 1", anything bigger is PVC or DIP).

 

[tman1020]

In my part of the world (Western BC) I beleive CPVC has been banned for years. It apparently breaks down when exposed to chlorinated water and becomes too brittle. (so I've been told) Had it in a house I bought 5 years ago and had a heck of a time finding transition fittings that would go from CPVC to either PEX or copper. It's PEX all the way for me!

I don't believe it's the CPVC pipe that has problems when exposed to chlorine I believe it was some isolated cases of certain types of glue that was used that would deteriorate. CPVC is generally very chemical resistant. There are some very nice USA made CPVC fittings that convert from CPVC to metal thread. However most of the valves that are CPVC or PVC even the premium ones are fair at best. I like to convert over to threaded and use high-quality brass valves.

 

[Maxify55]

My son's a licensed plumber and says that if you want cheap...PVC is the way to go. Next up would be cpvc but life expectancy is only around 20 yrs. After that is a crap shoot. He's replaced a lot of copper, pvc and cpvc over the yrs and, by far, the best and longest lasting is pex.
Just passing along data.
We built our place before was certified and had to settle for that which the contractor used.
Next time, you betcha, we're using pex.
Not nearly as expensive as copper and much longer lasting.