Has anyone had their polybutylene pipes replaced yet and filed a claim? Our home was built in 1991 and our yard line sprang a leak yesterday. I called the 1-800 # for the settlement and they said it must fail within 10 years of installation. I really don't think 10 years is sufficient for an inferior product which is likely to fail within 20 years of installation.
Greetings,
It does matter what you think but only if you file or join the lawsuit.
Hope this helps, William
Does not matter what you think. Some lawyer(s) got a big fee to decide that
10 year is good enough.Sam, If your polybutylene pipe is assembled with copper crimp rings and copper or brass fittings, you should have no problems. The poly tubing was not ever the problem. The problem occured when it was assembled with aluminum crimp rings and/or acetyl (grey plastic) fittings. So check your installation. If there are no aluminum crimp rings and no plastic crimp fittings, you have nothing to worry about.
Stretch
Except perhaps for the part about the plumbing "springing a leak". You might want to read the original post again.
This is quite the wrong advice.
PB piping (regardless of fittings) in certain types of chlorinated water will lose its elasticity and develop cracks and eventually leak. No need for panic though. It depends on the chemicals and quantity thereof used by your local water supplier as to the likelihood of leaking (e.g. major problems in FL; none or little in the Northeast).
There is also a problem with the fittings due (I'm not 100% sure of the reason) to poor installation when using a crimp fitting. Apparently the tool used to do the crimping is very sensitive to errors in adjustment and if it's not adjusted properly leaks will eventually occur. However compression fittings using internal aluminum rings, a compression washer, and gray acetyl nuts are in the clear and continue to be used today with PEX, the successor to PB.
There's lots of Chicken Little horror stories promoted by the usual suspects, the plumbers angling for work, but if you google "polybutylene" you can find the class action settlement sites. Note particularly the photos of the problem (and the non-problem) fittings on:
You are out of luck. The class action settlement was for 10 years, and that time is up.
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