pex

[LazyPup]

Use type M roll copper pipe.

[vdotmatrix]

Use type M roll copper pipe.

HIya, do all the copper fittig and technique for sweating apply to this kind of copper tubing?

Thanks man for all the work you do on this website

[LazyPup]

Do not confuse copper pipe with copper tubing.

Copper pipe is defined by the internal diameter.

Copper tubing is defined by the external diameter.

The copper pipe that we use in residential water systems is made in two varieties,
1. HARD DRAWN COPPER PIPE-Ridged 10' lengths
2. ANNEALED COPPER PIPE- 60ft or 100ft Continuous roll pipe

Both types of copper pipe have exactly the same dimensions and are joined by means of the same fittings and techniques.

[mrcaptainbob]

Pex fittings....

A neighbor just installed a wood burner and was handed the PEX for that. The ends were barbed and the means to hold them in place are hose clamps. Not the aircraft type. These are serious heavy duty industrial strength straps with a small bolt going through a T-nut. These get torqued down without worry of snapping the strap. Also, he was told that in the future, if needed, they can be loosened and the fitting rotated in the PEX and the clamp re-torqued. My personal experience with PEX and it's fittings started out with the gray plastic compression fittings. The compression rings failed after a year or so. Was NOT pretty! Then I went to the crimped fittings. Managed to rent the $180 tool for ten bucks a day. That worked well. Then comes the Sharkbites. These have been in the testing stage now for a bit over a year with no leaks. These are MPT on one end with the Shark feature on the other connecting the PEX to copper.

[vdotmatrix]

I am wondering if I shouldn't just carefully take apart the one panel of rare wood paneling nailed to the studs with these ONE-way finishing nails from hell -impossible to remove, in order to just use copper pipe because of the reasons you mentioned 2 years ago....

OpenDNS (lazypup@yahoo.com) on Wed, Nov 15, 06 at 19:06
As Sircuts@freeshell.org has already pointed out, I too can think of dozens of reasons why bending copper pipe is not a good solution. It has been mentioned that the inner wall friction of a bend is less than a fitting, which is true of factory made long radius bends where the pipe is bent in specially designed jigs prior to the tempering process but such is not the case when field bending copper.
First of all it should be thoroughly understood that no bend in copper pipe should have a radius less than 10 times the pipe diameter. (Many local codes limit bends to a minimum radius of 20 x pipe diameter).
When pipe is bent in the field two conditions happen that ultimately weaken the pipe. On the inside of the radius the pipe is compressed resulting in crosswise ridges similar to those on a corrugated pipe. (I appologize in advance if my description offends anyones sensibilities) When a pipe is field bent the outer curve of the radius is stretched leaving microscopic stretch marks similar to those seen on a womans stomach after a tough pregnancy. This also results in seriously weaking the pipe wall. We are then confronted with an increase in turbulance from the inner ridges reacting against the weakened outer wall and the end result is premature pipe wall erosion thus while a factory formed long radius bend will reduce line friction a field bend actually has much more friction problems than what would be seen with a fitting.