Hey plumbers......pex pipe failures???

Have you seen many, common occurrence with these pipes???


The wifey goes into the garage this morning and over by the water heater there's a puddle....oh joy!

I get out there to look into the problem and I can feel a spritz, these old eyes ain't helping but with brighter lighting, I can see there is a pinhole in the pex pipe going into the HWH.

Not a huge problem, I go buy a fitting, already have a pex crimper and just cut the damaged portion out, literally 5 minute repair. But sitting down looking at the inside of this damaged section and I can see running lengthwise there is a stress crack of sorts where the pinhole had formed.

So my question is, is this a common problem? I mean WTF, might I have some leaks elsewhere in the walls that I don't know about??? Looks like I'll need to get in the crawlspace to check for puddles, sooner than later. Ughhh, hate it under there.

 

https://www.plasticpipefailure.com/pex-problems

 

Yes.

Eff that crap. Copper FTW.

 

Only seen one failure, pinholed with no apparent damage to it. That was maybe 15 years ago.

 

99% of pex is fine. Provided it's installed correctly, mfg defects are not super common.

I just managed the installation of a 41 story and 36 story high rise tower, with all domestic water outside of the risers and main loops being pex. 4 failures. That's a few thousand miles of pex, and the failures we're at joints and one "possibly" a screw scrape/hole from the framers.

 

Thanks for the replies.

So I took a pic inside of the failed section I cut out, as you can see the failure runs lengthwise. Very odd to me as you'd think if it were kinked it'd make some sense...unless it was stepped on at some point but you'd think you'd see a crease along the opposite side.


Not a fan of this shit, except that it only took 5 minutes to fix vs sweating pipe...

 

I wasn't a fan of it until I worked with it the first time.

 

A failure rate like that is probably below what you would have had with soldered copper pipe joints. Even long-term, sweated joints on copper can leak due to hidden defects in them. I've even had a copper pipe spring a pinhole leak in my 40 year old home. Had to cut a section out of the office ceiling to repair it.

 

I'm a fan of the old school copper pipes. Remember there are 2 common types, blue and red. Don't be cheap, buy the good stuff (blue), MAP gas, deburr all pipes/fittings, lead free solder, fresh flux, pressure test when done......er, perhaps I should check out this PEX stuff.

 

A good plumber with copper is an art form, pex seems like a down n dirty way to do it, but I can see where it would be useful.

 

30+ minutes later.... (talking DIY'er here, not someone in the trade)

You REALLY should, it is so damn easy, cut, slide in crimping ring on both ends 1/8-1/4 from end, slide each end onto fitting, crimp, check crimp with gauge (comes with crimper)....DONE! No firing up map or acetylene, cleaning, fluxing, sweating anything or getting hot solder on your hands.

I have one of the cheaper HD pex cutters and a crimper which was slightly pricey at $80. I bought the tools to work on adding a winterizing/purge valve in my RV's water closet a few yrs ago so it all came in handy for this repair.


I started this thread just to see if anyone heard if these plastic pipes fail regularly or if this was a freak incident (fingers crossed). I've worked with copper and now this stuff, hands down easiest method, at least until sharkbite fittings get more affordable.

 

That is some shit I do not trust for longevity. O-ring seals and crimped pipe encased in wall and ceiling cavities sounds like a ticking time bomb.

 

Ain't nothing like a nicely sweated joint

 

Some pex doesn't do well with high chlorine concentration.

 

Not a fan of pro press. I feel like it's for people who can't sweat pipe. All of my soldering is on boiler piping, so I seldom have to deal with pex unless it's in the floor.