copper->plastic->copper - any drawbacks?

Oct 20, 2009 4 Replies

Virtually all my plumbing will be threaded through studwork, so plastic pipe is by far the easiest.



But some runs have to be copper, e.g. boiler to thermal store, vent pipe from store etc.



Other bits would be better in copper for the rigidity/robustness e.g. exposed pipes up to appliance taps, network of stuff supporting pumps etc.



So that would mean overall, almost every pipe run (hot, cold, heating) will be a mixture of plastic and copper.



I can't see any disadvantages to this, I've used plastic a lot with never a leak I can recall, nor any leaks in solder-ring fittings in new copper pipe (and very rarely a leak in reworking existing copper pipe - though compression fittings have occasionally had hard-to-cure drips).



So I can't see a downside to mixing plastic and copper as appropriate



- anyone think differently?



(Obviously such earth bonding as necessary will be done around boiler etc - and there's no need I can see for electrical continuity on any of the pipe runs)


In article , snipped-for-privacy@gglz.com writes

I think that's fine and my system is mixed like that.

I made the transitions between copper and plastic with standard brass compression fittings rather than plastic pushfit stuff for robustness. I've always thought the joint should be as tough as the strongest material to be jointed.

Never tried that. Always used pushfit for copper to plastic, and never had a leak, even where I've cycled the same mains-pressure fitting several times - though I can understand the feeling that those tiny stainless steel teeth in a plastic compression don't seem an awful lot of substance to hold it all together.

I just repeat usual my warning about little rodent teeth. Plastic is all very well, but....

R.

We had a mixture at our place for the plumbing related to one of the bathrooms - seemed to work well. Installers used threaded joints between copper and plastic runs.

I've pulled it all out now though as we'll be re-doing that bathroom, so I'll probably end up re-doing the lot in copper just to keep everything as one type of material.

cheers

Jules

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