From what I have read, it seems like any installation that has vibrations would be suspect. Also, I wonder how often they are assembled without thoroughly deburring the pipes they are joining.
Greek, more likely. Even at the dawn of the empire, the educated class (which means the governing class) spoke Greek as often as Latin. With the transfer of the capital to Constantinople, the language of government gradually shifted to Greek, though I believe Latin survived longer in the army.
Well heck, the language of diplomacy was once French. The language of aviation is English except when French pilots refuse to speak it and wind up making a big smoking hole in the ground. :-)
TDD
Were these *real* sharkbites, or 'sharkbite type'? Installed at the factory, or during the site install? Were they in a spot that might be getting some vibration from the whirlpool?
These are "actual" SharkBites installed at the factory used on 1/4" poly tubing subject to pump vibration within inches of the sanitizer. (So they probably lose their grip on the polyethylene)
Hadn't even thought of the poly. I would say the recipe for disaster here includes somebody in a factory shoving them together all day & not paying particular attention to them- the poly instead of a more solid bite like on copper- and then the vibrations.
I feel better about mine already. Thanks.
Jim
The Sharkbite fittings have stainless steel teeth that grab onto the pipe. I could see in an extreme vibration situation like the whirlpool that the teeth would pretty quickly gnaw into the plastic pipe and compromises the hold on the pipe. A recipe for disaster. It makes me wonder who was asleep at the wheel when the decision was made to use that type of fitting in that application. Who was the manufacturer?
R
Silcraft/Invacare
Don't even get me started on that! My (now) standard response for the inevitable "what are you doing" question is to reply with "I'm just trying to see what you have right now."
It usually gives them enough of a clue to go away. Until the next helpful little butterfly tries to land on me.
Jon
Of course the flip side is when you luck upon a person who actually knows what he's talking about.
When I was browsing the Home Depot plumbing department and looking into the Shark Bites for the project I mentioned earlier, an employee asked me what I was planning on using them for. Not only did he know all about the Shark Bites, he saved me some money by pointing out the "hidden" stash of shorter lengths of PEX.
Prominently displayed were the 10' straight lengths and the 50' & 100' rolls. When I said that I would need three 10 footers and a couple of in-line Shark Bites to make up my 22' length, he pointed me towards the barely-labeled boxed rolls of 25' that were down on the bottom shelf. Between the cheaper PEX and the elimination of two $6 fittings, he probably saved me close to 50% on this small project.
When I playing with the Shark Bite tee and thought out loud about "aiming" it so I could attached the PEX, it was he that pointed out that they swivel so no "aiming" was required. Had I gotten home and found that the fitting was "loose" on the pipe, I probably would have panicked.
Sometimes you just never know who knows what.
snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news:hjgte69dpuod818gt2li4c4o45vrss1394@
4ax.com:
Everybody is different. Personally I like them for sink & toilet shutoffs. Never had an issue which explains why I like them. Tighten to box directions. If there's a drip, tighten 1/2 to 1 flat. Never back up.
re: "They're too expensive to plumb an entire house or addition...doesn't make sense financially"
I'm not arguing, but I'd like to see some actual numbers on that. With long single runs of PEX from a Shark Bite manifold to each fixture, or even a manifold and some Tee's sprinkled in here and there, the
*labor* savings would be huge.If the job was priced based on "labor and materials" as opposed to a "per fixture" flat rate I wonder which one would work out better for both the client and the contractor. Two "expensive" Push and Click connections at each end of a 75' twisted run vs. sweating a "cheap" CU connection at each junction. The time savings might well be worth it.
I know that from my admittedly limited experience, the extra cost for the Shark Bites vs. how quickly I was done with the job was well worth it - and I was basically working for free.
Well, the "failure mechnism" of an o-ring seal is wear of the o-ring with pressure fluxuations. But in a domestic water situation, the temperatures do change much and the pressures aren't extreme. That minimizes wear and fatigue.
IOW: it's a near static situation.
The "record" in static situation for O-rings it quite outstanding: WWII aircraft found in deserts after 50+ years still had charged accumulators (nitrogen over hydrollic oil).
Over the past decades plumbers have had to replace gross amounts of plactic plumbing from problems that showed up after 5+ years. Compared to that, I would expect the o-rings to outlast any plastic pipe.
>
Scratching the O-ring during installation is probably the biggest concern - or scratching the pipe badly enough to compromise the O-ring seal. Cash Acme wants to sell you their nifty little deburring tool.
R
Are you talking about those plastic fittings where the outer shell is pushed forward to install the pipe, and snaps back when the pipe is inserted? If this is what you mean, I used several of those on a Pex job when I re did my bathroom. I never wanted to use the PEX in the first place. The whole house is copper, but several years ago I was out of town when the toilet pipe froze and I had to hire a plumber, and he ran some PEX up to the bathroom. I intended to rip it out and put in all copper but the driod at the store told me that PEX is the best and did his best to sell me on that crap. When I found out the cost of the tool to put on the rings, I bought those snap on connectors (which I believe is what you mean).
For the last year since I re-did the bathroom, everytime someone used the shower there was water dripping in basement under the tub. I caulked and recaulked around the tub suround and bitched at everyone in the house about spraying too much water on the walls. Last month I finally ripped out the wall behind the tub in the room behind it, and found that snap together connector leaking by the shower head. The floor under it was getting bad and moldy. I looks like everytime someone adjusted the shower head, that elbow fitting moved until it was halfway off the pipe. I relaced the divereter to shower head pipe with copper and have not closed up that wall yet, because I am going to replace all the PEX with copper. I should have listened to myself and not that droid in the first place. I wont be using any more of those connectors or for that matter, PEX.
For the past 60 years of my life, plumbing meant solid pipe, not hoses (which is what PEX is). I'll keep it that way from now on. Copper costs more, but compared to the cost of those fittings, I would have spent the same amount if I had done what I wanted in the first place, and would not have had to rip open a wall and deal with bad boards and mold inside the wall. Live and learn !!!! Newer don't always mean better.....
You ARE a real man if you can put on a Sharkbite fitting using ONLY your dick and balls. (No hands allowed). Lets see you do it, and be sure to video the whole ordeal for Youtube.com. (Sorry. you can not take viagra to do this, since that would be cheating). :)
re: "Are you talking about those plastic fittings where the outer shell is pushed forward to install the pipe, and snaps back when the pipe is inserted?"
I'm not sure what fittings you are describing, but these are the ones the rest of us are talking about:
snipped-for-privacy@thenet.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
You severely underestimate the versatility of duct tape.
snipped-for-privacy@thenet.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
You severely underestimate the versatility of duct tape.
snipped-for-privacy@thenet.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
You severely underestimate the versatility of duct tape.
snipped-for-privacy@thenet.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
You severely underestimate the versatility of duct tape.
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