Water supply lines.

What do you prefer to use on water supply lines?  Copper, galvanized, pex, pvc, cpvc?

I like copper because that is what I am use to. The pex is also great because its easy to work with. What about you

I also prefer copper. I am working with cpvc right now but it seems weak I don’t like it but that’s what the customer wants. We’re remodeling a Best Western in Kenosha. I’ve used pex a few times were it was existing but personally I would only use it on a straight run.

Just put in a new water heater and used copper. The old one had CPVC.

ChaseRogers wrote:

Just put in a new water heater and used copper. The old one had CPVC.

Cpvc is great for tearing it out.

Yeah it sure is.

I prefer copper. I think PVC is a mistake in the long term. Never used PEX.

Yeah copper will last forever you just gotta make sure you wipe down the extra flux so it does’nt corrode it over time.

Kenosha, wi? Thats right up the street, well sort of. Why should t you ever use pex? I am doing a bathroom and was thinking about trying it along with copper, but maybe I will just use copper

Eric J wrote:

Kenosha, wi? Thats right up the street, well sort of. Why should t you ever use pex? I am doing a bathroom and was thinking about trying it along with copper, but maybe I will just use copper

If you’re talking about my comment, I was just saying that I don’t have any experience with it. Not saying I wouldn’t, just never have.

Kenosha is Snap-On country. My kind of place, lol

As a Plumber of 35 years + experience I think Copper is wonderful and anything else is the work of the devil   LOL   🙂

haha I see alot of everything on the job but alittle copper so who knows

Copper/pex, copper is so expensive most ppl opt for pex. Although if fire proofing is involved copper all the way.

Another big thing is pex is so easy to transport. You could use a smart car as your work vehicle.

I guess I’m old school, but I still prefer copper. Pex will eventually phase copper out though.

Copper will always have it’s place in fire rated buildings, and riser mains in multi storey buildings. Also if any water lines are to be exposed(open ceiling) copper all the way.

Good point.  I never thought about the fire rating

Man pex would be just ugly to look at in an open install. I know people like that unfinished look in they move into a loft style apartment. With the exposed ducting and such.

I never though of the fire rating either. Completely slipped my mind. 

I like copper but some times it gets crazy expensive

Our house has PVC and it is starting to develop minor leaks after 15+ years

NicholasShetley wrote:

Our house has PVC and it is starting to develop minor leaks after 15+ years

PVC supply lines! When was the house built? Is there PVC in the walls?

Yea I have heard bad things about some of  the early pvc water lines bad quality components and improper installation were big issues. I think they had a class action lawsuit against one of the companies that made it.

It leaks in our basement in the ceiling right below the bathroom. The house was built around 18 to 19 years ago.

That’s a corner not worth cutting IMO. Did they build the house to sell? In any event, thats a shitty thing to do. 

Copper is great and all until your jerk tenants rip it out for scrap. That’s exactly what happened to my mom’s rental property a couple of years ago. Had to replace the entire plumbing with something that isn’t worth anything at the recycling/scrap yard. Went with pvc I believe.

Conductor562 wrote:

That’s a corner not worth cutting IMO. Did they build the house to sell? In any event, thats a shitty thing to do.

No not at all. It more or less drips. It is barely enough to tell.

I’ve seen PVC used to supply external items such as water heaters, filter systems, etc., but never in a wall.

They are for the drains for most things ( bathtub, sink, washing machine)

I’m late to the party but…Copper is a great, tried and true product if you have a municipal water supply. If you have well water, l would recommend pex 9 times out of 10. Also if you bid new construction jobs in copper and your competitors bids are for pex, you will be home alot. Viega makes a product called fosta pex(FormStay) that has an aluminum jacket on the outside of the pipe that holds its shape really well and can be used on potable water as well as in heating systems. Cpvc water piping is shit in my professional opinion. Pvc is a great material for drain piping. If its installed properly it will outlast the building.

I was tought how to make copper pipework look beautiful. Pex is horrible looking no matter how you put it in compared to copper 🙂

Working in alot of remodeled apartments pex is amazing and easy to install compared to copper in old buildings. Also pex has more of an tolerance to freezing unlike how copper will split. 

I have never known anything but copper and I have used it for years after years. I see the advantage to PEX. Cheap to buy, cheap (quick) to install. 

I have never used PEX yet but I am tempted.

At work we now go with duraPEX. We do copper and CPVC for tapping into/ altering existing installs; but Pex is the way to go.

Much easier and faster to install. The price is hard to beat. As someone else mentioned, the pipe itself can freeze and expand. It’s not supposed to split/ rupture when it does.

Copper is what I prefer.

Pex has a greater feet per second flow rating than copper and sometimes can actually be sized differently to add to the savings

Pex will allow contractors to have lower insurance premiums due to not needing to use a torch in a residence

No need for “harmful” flux or solder in the drinking water

Grade A pex (expansion style connection) is pretty burst resistant (from freezing compared to copper)

Pex is more resistant to corrosion, pitting and scaling

Expansion style pex cannot be “dry fit” (less likelihood of leaks).

Crackheads don’t steal pex from job sites

If kinked (grade A pex) can be heated with a torch and return to its original state

It’s cheaper to purchase and install

Retains more heat in hot water lines due to less heat teansfer

I perfer copper personally but I just like soldering.

Im a firm believer in Pex, most of my plumbing work is sub contracted but my plumber is on board. 

he and i agree on copper anywhere it is exposed or has to support itself in some sort of a freestanding application like in and out of mechanicals, water heaters, whole house water filters etc. I also dont let him stub out of walls with it to shut off valves. it allows too much flex and looks and feels cheap. he transitions to a nail on flange with a fixed copper stub that comes out of the wall, sometimes even a threaded brass pipe with finish to match the fixtures.. when someone goes to twist a shut off valve i want it to feel solid..

anywhere where the pex is nailed to the basement ceiling or will be inside walls i prefer Pex for its many advantages.. 

one of the areas i do alot of work in has funky water that will actually eat pin holes through the copper from the inside out and cause leaks, we have re-piped several of these older houses with pex. 

A lot of big RV brands use the pex and have been for a long time.

Javier wrote:

Copper is great and all until your jerk tenants rip it out for scrap. That’s exactly what happened to my mom’s rental property a couple of years ago. Had to replace the entire plumbing with something that isn’t worth anything at the recycling/scrap yard. Went with pvc I believe.

That happened to the house we bought last year. It was a vacant house for a while and had squatters living in it at one point. They ripped out all of the copper water lines and even the electrical. Found that out from some of our neighbors. From what ive seen there is a mix of copper and pex in our house. The house was originally built back in 1957.

I have been installing pex since 2006 and it’s the best on the market type A will out last coper and you have to be a fool to pick copper over pex with the price. I prefer rehau it’s a German company but it’s the highest price out of all pex manufactures.

I prefer Type A or ProPex with expansion fittings. It’s easy to work with, if you accidentally crimp the PEX, you can smooth out the crimp with a heat gun. It’s the best in my book.

If you have a fire and the PEX melts, so what? Extra water on your fire.

I just re plumbed my house with Zurn Pex. I’m very happy with it so far.

I swear u guys teach me something new everyday I’m on here Thanks guys!! Proto my wife n me were lookin at a modular home while searching for a house it was really nice but I do remember it having a couple water spots on the walls and in kitchen I wonder if that had anything to do with that.

We actually used to install polybutylene. It was the Pex of the day back in the 80s. There were different grades of the pipe. The stuff my dad installed was a dull grey. There were three different kinds of fittings I remember.(plastic, copper, and brass). Only one house that my dad or grandpa installed it in had problems that I know of. This one house had well water and for whatever reason the plastic fittings deteriated from the inside out. I feel for you though if you have a manufactured house with the stuff. I remember working on a couple with my dad back in the 90’s. The polybutylene in manufactured homes was a shiny almost silver looking pipe. That stuff was crazy brittle back then. I remember it would develop little hair line cracks anywhere it bent and spray water out in what looked like a spider web. The only thing you can do is replace it. I guess it was the early 90s when my dad switched to CPVC. He would only use Flowguard Gold CPVC. It had some flex to it and wasn’t brittle like a lot of the lower grade pipe. I was going to use FlowGuard Gold CPVC to plumb my house. I did some research and no one in my area was stocking it. I talked to the local supply house they recommended the Zurn Pex. I remember Pex had started showing up back then. So I have known about it being installed for at least 20 years. I did some research and didn’t find any real problems reported. I decided to give it a try. It’s nice to be able to drive a couple miles up the road and get any fitting I need. I bought a set of Ridgid crimpers and installed it. It installs just like the polybutylene did back in the day. The fittings are all high quality brass and I was sure to check the adjustment on my crimpers. You have to be sure to keep the jaws very clean and not let any dirt get in them. The Pex is by far the easiest to install. I would use schedule 40 PVC for underground water lines and the entrance into the house and Pex after your ball valve.

Another great thing about Pex is you can color code your piping. So it can be much easier to determine the hot from the cold, especially under a house.

Chris wrote:

Another great thing about Pex is you can color code your piping. So it can be much easier to determine the hot from the cold, especially under a house.

You can’t really go by that some people put things together any which way..lol 

It seems to me you would end up with a lot more scraps by using the color coded.

Instead of just having 1/2″ and 3/4″ pipe you would have 1/2″ red, 1/2″ blue, 3/4″ red, and 3/4″ blue.

I just used white pipe. It’s not that hard to keep track of which line is hot.

It’s code in most places that you have to run the color coded pex.

DR99 wrote:

It’s code in most places that you have to run the color coded pex.

Unless you are selling the pipe. LOL!

Seriously how is that fair. Does the code also require color coded copper?