Posted by Todd on June 21, 2009, 8:23:35, in reply to "Re: Shark Bite Plumbing Fittings"
24.225.101.205
Thanks Mark. I knew the fittings were similar to air fittings. One thing I did not know was that copper would heat up and expand faster than plastic. I thought it would have been the other way around. Now on to the PEX. If you go to Sharkbite's website, they list their PEX tubing for potable water use. What gives with this? I also agree with you about the lack of good engineering for residential and light commercial pluming industry. Stodgy does not really describe the mentality. I work almost exclusively in a industrial/commercial setting so my experience with residential stuff is limited. I like it that way. I despise working on residential electrical systems.
I have often thought the same way you do about burying pipes and wires in walls with no access. Especially data and electrical pathways. It is UNBELIEVABLE to me how many people build new homes and still make no provision for entrance demarcation for data and video. They have cables strapped all over their houses like a true add on. This is really laughable since structured wiring for a normal home is dirt cheap. A 1000' box of Cat5e is about $70 at most stores. You can easily bring two data cables to each room in the house with that one box. You simply need a central distribution point and some smurf tube if you are running it laterally through joists or some EMT stubs up from the basement or crawl space. Maybe $500 per house if you do the work yourself. That would include boxes and jacks at each location. I won't even get into the lack of a manifold system for the plumbing. Yeah, there is more copper used that way but having the ability to isolate plumbing circuits whilst leaving the rest of the water on is always a good idea. How about no hot water recirculation? This one baffles me the most since it either involves one return line from your furthest plumbing fixture to a pump in your utility/water heater area or one of those mixing valve things at the same last outlet. They don't even insulate the lines around here unless they are on an outside wall. So wasteful.
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