Plastic plumbing or copper, whats do you prefer ?

[WVaHillbilly]

Growing up as a boy, copper was the only thing available and I much prefer working with and installing plastic plumbing. I cannot think of any advantages to copper plumbing over plastic plumbing.

 

[kennyd]

Plastic CPVC has my vote now, just make sure you get good valves from a plumbing supply house and not Lowes or Home Depot.

The only time I use copper anymore is for air lines...

 

[n8wrl]

We recently pulled as much of our copper out as we could during a remodel that opened some walls. Replaced with pex. We've got fairly acidic water and it was eating the copper. Blue water, bad taste, etc. No worries with the plastic!

 

[kenmac]

with the price of copper these days. Pex is the way to go if you have the tools if requirs to do the install

 

[Jimbrown]

PEX all the way easy to install and it can freez and not break

 

[Bill Barrett]

Pex is great. I have over 16,000 feet on one job, 8,000 feet on another. Have it in my shop. Will have it in my new shop and house! Some in for 20 years no problem.

 

[MossRoad]

We recently pulled as much of our copper out as we could during a remodel that opened some walls. Replaced with pex. We've got fairly acidic water and it was eating the copper. Blue water, bad taste, etc. No worries with the plastic!

I just had a bend in a copper tube start leaking last month. Inspection reveals the blue green crud ate the low point of the bend.

 

[Skyco]

We recently pulled as much of our copper out as we could during a remodel that opened some walls. Replaced with pex. We've got fairly acidic water and it was eating the copper. Blue water, bad taste, etc. No worries with the plastic!

Same thing here with the acid water. I run an acid neutralizing system that the water runs through, it was expensive but less than replacing all the copper which will eventually fail from acid erosion.
Any I have to replace will be plastic.

 

[voodoo]

Pex or equivalent had early problems with oxygen absorbtion through the walls causing oxide corrosion on central heating systems. Current materials seem to have overcome this.

Copper today is a vastly inferior product to that 20-30 years ago. The level of impurities has increased dramatically, resulting in greater failure rate due to corrosion pitting etc.

Today, I would fully recomend plastic. The only perceived advantage of copper is that it lends itself to a much neater install. It's all too easy to throw pex in wherever is most convenient, sometimes looking more like spagetti than pipework.
Of course, that is down to the tradesman, not the material.

 

[RoyJackson]

Plastic is so easy to work with...much more forgiving then running copper (great news for the DIY type folks).
But I'd wager copper lasts longer.