Pex vs. Sharkbite

[bgillroy]

Be aware that boat movement vibration will eventually open the seal within pex fittings leading to leaks. Carvers 20 yrs old experiencing this phenomenon as example.

Bill Gillroy
Maka Honu
42 PH trawler

 

[Datenight]

Be aware that boat movement vibration will eventually open the seal within pex fittings leading to leaks. Carvers 20 yrs old experiencing this phenomenon as example.

Bill,

Are you thinking of polybutylene plumbing? That was used quite a bit before pex became popular. There is a lot of information re issues with polybutylene. Have not heard of pex problems provided installation procedures are followed.

Rob

 

[ranger58sb]

Be aware that boat movement vibration will eventually open the seal within pex fittings leading to leaks. Carvers 20 yrs old experiencing this phenomenon as example.

Have not had the issue with PEX...

-Chris

 

[Ken E.]

Be aware that boat movement vibration will eventually open the seal within pex fittings leading to leaks.

The many boat and RV builders who use PEX would disagree with you, as well as commercial and residential building contractors who use it on a large scale

 

[Comodave]

I have not heard any issues with PEX, polybutylene is another story. Lots of problems with it. A house we used to own had it for service from the street to the house. They replaced it at no cost due to the law suits.

 

[ssurabus]

My 05 Mainship 40, and I assume all the others, came with Seatech (which as Brad mentions is also now called Watts Aqualock). These fittings have been completely reliable and have been very tolerant of vibration as well as multiple connect/reconnect cycles (I pull some every year during winterizing). On the occasion that I needed to add one, it was just cut/push to connect - not much care was required in terms of perfectly square cut/debur, etc. If starting over, I'd probably us a mixture of pex crimp fittings and the Seatech depending on the particular situation.

The Watts brand of of slip-on fittings is targeted at marine use, I've read that their design is more tolerant to vibration than "SharkBite". Watts brand is now AquaLock, use to be known as SeaTech. URL: https://www.watts.com/products/plum...connections/aqualock-push-to-connect-fittings

Nobody has mentioned METRIC vs SAE pipe & fitting sizes yet!!! If your boat is Taiwanese made, it likely has 15mm and 21mm pipes and fittings. METRIC AND SAE SLIP FITTINGS DON'T INTERCHANGE - although you can force a fit a standard fitting into metric PEX pipe using a compression ring in a pinch.

Having metric sized PEX pipe and slip-on fittings on my boat, I carry spare fittings (for proper repairs) as well as a PEX tool (for hasty repairs). I think preference of using a slip-on fitting vs. compression band is also space dependent... is it in front of you or 6'3" away behind the water heater...

Good Luck - make sure you know your sizes before you start!
Brad
Weezer / Fleming 55

 

[slowgoesit]

Be aware that boat movement vibration will eventually open the seal within pex fittings leading to leaks. Carvers 20 yrs old experiencing this phenomenon as example.

Bill Gillroy
Maka Honu
42 PH trawler

Bill, if that was directed at me, I appreciate the input, but the pex fittings I am using are pex stainless steel crimp fittings, crimped with the pex crimper. Not a lot of room there for vibration to loosen them. The copper crimp fittings I used in our last house would probably worked just fine, but I decided to use the stainless steel.

If you are speaking of sharkbite fittings used with pex, that may be an entirely different story.
Perhaps more in line with what you are speaking of is when I removed the Whale quick fail (oops, I mean the quick disconnect connectors), the plastic tubing was so scored and damaged where the connector "sealed" that the tubing had to be replaced. Perhaps that's some of that vibration damage you are speaking of???

 

[rgano]

Can you use PEX fittings with SeaTech/Watts Aqualock tubing?

 

[lwarden]

I had done some replacement in our home of the old copper price with PEX and used a couple of the Sharkbite connectors in the attic area. After about 5-6 years one of the fittings sprung a leak at the o-ring and caused some minor damage. I replaced with the stainless ring crimp type. Recently I redid all the copper pipes and used these crimp type PEX fittings everywhere. The boat has the metric Whale fittings but see no reason to replace those and since they are metric I would suspect it's more difficult to get the fittings locally and I'm not in a hurry to replace the tubing with SAE.

 

[catalinajack]

Steve, you forgot to add:

• The design of the fittings is poor.
• The materials used in the construction of some of the fittings are substandard.
• The quality control of the manufacture of some of the fittings is substandard.

I recently built a house and was using sharkbite fittings. The first assemblies went just fine. Then I went back and bought a bunch more. The first two I assembled broke during assembly. Further investigation revealed that approximately 1/3 of the various fittings were either missing components, were broken, or some of the components weren't completely formed, ie; part of a "rim" on the component was missing.

I removed ALL of the sharkbite fittings from the job, went back to Lowes, and returned them all. Lowes said they have had a BUNCH of returns recently for defective fittings . . . .

Thank God I hadn't put everything together, turned on the water, and been away from the house . . . .
So the three failures I bulleted above are ALSO reasons that sharkbite fittings fail.

I replaced all the fasteners with the Pex Stainless steel crimped rings.

Personally, I'll not be using sharkbite fittings again, ever. YMMV

It is a mystery to me why a house, a new house, would be plumbed using sharkbite fittings which ain't cheap when CPVC is easy and quick to install.

 

[slowgoesit]

It is a mystery to me why a house, a new house, would be plumbed using sharkbite fittings which ain't cheap when CPVC is easy and quick to install.

I posed this very question to a plumber once. I really don't agree with him, but he stated that the sharkbite fittings could be used in tight locations where the crimping tool for the copper swage fittings wouldn't fit. (The crimping tool for the stainless steel crimped fittings can be used in much more confined locations, but he didn't address those) He claimed the extra cost of the fittings was more than offset by the labor savings. When I asked about expensive failures, often behind the drywall causing extensive damage, his reply was that in his experience, the failures either happened immediately after installation and were found during testing, and before the insulation/sheetrock was installed, or the failures occurred after the house warranty expired, and it was no longer his problem . . . .

Welcome to today's work ethic . . .

 

[Bmarler]

Wouldn’t a real plumber use expansion type fittings?

 

[SteveK]

Wouldn’t a real plumber use expansion type fittings?

I remember when these came out and several real plumbers started using them because they could charge the same for a lot less time. But as some failures occurred, warranty repairs made, that fad faded away.