[thedanbob]

I had a major plumbing problem some time ago (leak in the house’s main line) and paid a plumber way too much to dig a hole and fix it. I of course wasn’t about to pay him to fill the hole back up, and while it was open I took a good look. That’s when I discovered PEX. PEX is wonderful: easy to work with, inexpensive, simple to fix if you screw something up. I wish all plumbing was PEX.

I briefly installed an NPT flow meter (that was probably actually BSP) in the line. I can confirm that the PEX-to-NPT fittings leaked until I used a whole roll of PTFE tape and a mountain gorilla. Eventually the cheap flow meter started leaking from the casing itself so I ripped it out and replaced it with beautiful PEX.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

Came here to also plug PEX. A friend used it for his remodel, did most of the work himself, and set everything up so all the lines come down to a sort of "switchboard" panel in his basement, so that as he did more remodeling work in the future he could disconnect individual loops trivially. It just makes so much sense and is so easy vs copper pipe.

Amusingly he told me one of the plumbers he did get a bid from said something like "well all PEX does is save you time and money" like it was a bad thing lol.

[nemo44x]

It’s also super easy and affordable to run extra lines that aren’t being used for future use. For instance, it might be you want to run a circulator across all your taps, but not today.

You can in many cases snake it as well.

[msrenee]

It breaks down pretty quickly when exposed to light, chlorine, and excessive heat. It's also very easy to damage. A kid being an idiot or rats and mice gnawing on everything like they do and you've got a heck of a leak that hopefully is caught quickly.

Seems like there's lots of situations where it's a good choice and lots of situations where it's not.

[toss1]

Can confirm - also started using PEX recently, and it is fantastic - wouldn't go back for anything! Straightforward, solid, more resistant to freezing (tho I still drain/blow out the outside lines in winter). I've even had zero problems with the PEX-copper fittings; I generally just attach straight onto a cut pipe rather than an NPT fitting, so that may account for my different experience.

I've run a few new lines in the house, and also new hose faucets outside. Looking at using it for both vacuum and compressed air lines in the shop.

[VLM]

There are two problems with PEX in the shop, one real one joke.

The joke one is PVC + UV = shrapnel, and frankly given enough time and vibration PVC doesn't need UV to shatter, so old timers hearing you're using plastic in the shop will freak out. (edited for those who don't get the joke: Pex will definitely split or crack under UV but AFAIK never shatters, so using PVC is a major OSHA violation but using unprotected Pex is mostly safe although maybe economically unwise)

The real problem is the melting point is unimpressive and you're like one lathe chip away from an air leak. Not catastrophic but annoying. Murphy's law is air leaks only happen when you don't have time to slap a new fitting on, or when your collection of fittings is empty/missing and the store closed five minutes ago.

[beerandt]

Locally, we also have problems with rodents chewing threw unprotected pex. Probably because we rarely freeze, and unprotected really means completely unprotected.

[toss1]

Thank you!! Very helpful tips, I appreciate it

[scotty79]

There is a pex variant which consists of aluminium pipe with plastic layers on the inside and outside. This should combat low melting point of the plastic

[ssl232]

I've not done any major replumbing yet but I've been watching Matt Risinger [1] on YouTube for a few months and have quickly become a PEX fanboi. He's a home builder based in Texas and uses PEX for basically every job. There are some videos on his channel comparing different types of PEX and PEX against other systems.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/@buildshow

[bhandziuk]

His channel is great but it gives a false sense of what can be accomplished on my budget most of the time. It's always far above what I can afford but If I can even replicate 10% of what he does I'll be better off than most.

[bilsbie]

What’s the one that leaks and you’re supposed to replace?

[schemescape]

Probably polybutylene: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybutylene

[thedanbob]

That’s the one my house was plumbed with. I’ve already had to patch two random leaks. I don’t yet have the motivation to fix the whole house so I just keep PEX tools and parts handy in case it fails somewhere else.

[tharkun__]

Kitec: http://kitecsettlement.com/

[ropable]

PEX is great until rats start chewing through it in random places. Then copper pipe starts looking pretty good again.

[iancmceachern]

Pex is awesome, I replaced my entire house with it, I couldn't have done it myself otherwise and had a great result.

[latchkey]

We started with welded joints, then moved to threaded (and every variation in between of that). I kind of wonder if PEX will be deprecated some day by something even better. We are going to end up with yet another standard that PEX has to interface with. Feels like an xkcd... https://xkcd.com/927/