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Sharkbite - Pex - Copper

I've found shark bites to work well for general plumbing but not very rigid if you are installing something like a small filter. The fittings will allow it to rotate around the axis.
 
Just an opinion ....

When the solder/crimp parts to do it are so economical, and an adapter that solders to the copper and then crimps to the Pex is certain to be permanent, why spend extra to go with something that has even the slightest amount of doubt attached to it? I have used Sharkbites without failure, but only as temporary fittings. For my own home I would go with soldered/crimped every time.

cheers
 
John Bartley said:
When the solder/crimp parts to do it are so economical, and an adapter that solders to the copper and then crimps to the Pex is certain to be permanent, why spend extra to go with something that has even the slightest amount of doubt attached to it?
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Yes, that is a good point. In full disclosure, I have only used them for emergency repairs where I either had a valve that wouldn't fully shut off and couldn't sweat the fittings due to water, or emergency repairs of similar issues with sweating them. My last use was on our outdoor water boiler circulation system to our radiators in the dead of winter and an leak was occurring on a radiator my wife's grandpa put in the outdoor greenhouse. I ended up by-passing the radiator inside the basement going copper >> Pex >> copper. Draining that part of the system would have taken a few days and the temps of the water at that point were only about 130*F.

Steve's point about movement is certainly true too, they don't lock tight in a circular position, they will allow for some movement that could possibly lead to a leak over time, so securing the lines would be recommended.
 
Jay Caughron said:
If I use standard crimp couplers they chock down the flow.
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Yeah there's pex B with the crimp fittings that you basically have to go up a line size for the same flow and there's pex A with the expansion fittings that you can run same size as copper. Reportedly A leaches a bit more (at least to start with) especially if you have chlorine/chloramine/chlorine dioxide in your water (in which case look for ASTM F2023 certification), and *might* be slightly more attractive to rodents than B, but A is also more flexible so it's more freeze resistant as well.
 
Jay Caughron said:
I am looking into the newest ones of those so I can get full flow though the 1/2" lines to the shower. If I use standard crimp couplers they chock down the flow.
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If you take a look at how small the passageways inside the shower valves and heads are, you wouldn't worry about that slight restriction at the Pex/Copper joint fitting. I ran 3/4 Pex for a water header and then "T" down to 1/2 for individual appliance feed lines. I get full flow.
 
All good points. I have traditionally used Copper and Sweat. I am actually pretty good at soldering. Not quite as pretty as a pro but I am pretty much leak free first time and I know the joints are fully soldered.

Running the plastic tubing is by far easier and certainly easier when a copper pathway run will have several solder joints.

I have never run plastic before, so I am a little unsure.
I have watched many videos on Pex expansion and Pex crimp.
I have also watched many videos on the sharkbite.
I am familiar with HOW the sharkbite works.

When cutting existing copper that has water in it, the soldering gets --- interesting??
I have done it many times and with good results.
I am always a little apprehensive when soldering at the cellar ceiling area.

John point of restrictions in a shower valve are valid - so Crimp seems like an OK way.
I did buy a crimp tool.

I will look at the fittings today at Lowes.
I have not yet made a decision.
 
I'm intrigued that you can use the sharkbite fittings with CPVC. My house is partially plumbed with CPVC and I live in its shadow as I know it can become very brittle with age and is therefore more subject to damage that other forms of plumbing. The one case where I had to attach new work to existing I used a glue on fitting to adapt to a threaded fitting for some flexible line for our water softener. Scared me and I was VERY careful.
 
The water lines are 1/2 pex B run under the concrete and I put foam liners on all the runs. Each run is a home run to a water manifold so I can flush the toilet and not hear the Mrs scream from the shower. The plumber cut the lines to short to hook up to the manifold with out a extension or elbow so I was thinking of using the Sharkbite max fittings in that area
 
Rennie Heuer said:
I'm intrigued that you can use the sharkbite fittings with CPVC. My house is partially plumbed with CPVC and I live in its shadow as I know it can become very brittle with age and is therefore more subject to damage that other forms of plumbing. The one case where I had to attach new work to existing I used a glue on fitting to adapt to a threaded fitting for some flexible line for our water softener. Scared me and I was VERY careful.
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We have a mix of CPVC and older galvanized lines. Other than the main well lines coming in, I'll be replacing all of the supply lines with Pex. The shower that was added about 15 years ago is the only fixture that really has any real water pressure as all the final lines to everywhere else is plugged up in the galvanized pipe.

For the guest cabin, I used pex for all the lines, The stub outs for the sinks and toilet were copper, pre-made with pex connections on them. I think the shower connection was the most frustrating as it didn't really have any connections, just standard threads, I finally found pex to threaded fittings that worked and crimped on pex to them after thread tape and tightening the fittings on the valve. The shower/tub kits are just sold as decorative parts, most of them sell the valve separately now by itself.

What is 1/2" lines in pex seems small for a tub or shower, but if you look at the valves the water channels in the valves aren't even as big as what is supplied by the pex. I just ran 3/4" up as close as I could to the final connections to maximize the supply and reduce in the last 1 - 2 feet.
 
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