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C Scott McDonald
05-03-2009, 10:45 PM
I have old polybutylene piping and it is leaking. I swear as soon as a I get leak fixed another one starts to drip. Since the house was plumbed with flexible pipe I guess I makes sense to go with Pex. First do I have to use a manifold? It is only a town house with one and a half baths and a kitchen sink. Currently there is not one and my plan was just to follow the old plumbing. Second is there any reason not to use Zurns stuff?

Thanks Scott

Greg Peterson
05-03-2009, 11:56 PM
I used Wirsbo PEX for my house. The biggest disadvantage to Wirsbo is the $200 expansion tool that is required to install fittings.

You don't need to use a manifold, but is sure is nice to have. You can kind of make your own via the PEX. While it will be functional, it won't be as elegant.

I like the color coded PEX, but the Wirsbo I used was just plain white. I used red and blue zip ties on the lines so that I and future owners could easily identify which service the line provides.

PEX is easy to work with and is definitely the way to go, IMO.

Jim Becker
05-04-2009, 8:03 AM
I would suggest you do stick with a manifold...it's one of the wonderful aspects about using a flexible solution like PEX for your plumbing.

Scott Mann
05-04-2009, 9:48 AM
I know that the polybutylene is a joke, as for the manifold, i don't know. I would say that Pex is the way to go.

Matt Meiser
05-04-2009, 3:42 PM
I've been using the Zurn stuff for modifications in my house when I remodeled bathrooms and a repair and I really like it. I have a Zurn crimping tool kit my wife bought me at Lowes that has a variety of dies and a tool to cut off the rings to reuse fittings which is nice for things like temporary caps or if you had to redo something.

Since we have a copper trunk line, I've just been sweating on transition fittings and redoing from there. But if I ever had to redo part of the trunk line, I'd do a manifold.

Bill Houghton
05-04-2009, 3:50 PM
he tells me from his research so far that Wirsbo is the only one without lawsuits against it.

No real knowledge, though.

Alan Trout
05-04-2009, 9:46 PM
Being an inspector I see PEX every day. Personally if I were to use PEX tubing I would not use a manifold. I find it to be a novel idea but in practice the way it is usually used it is less than ideal. Most installers of PEX with a manifold do not use angle stops for a sinks and the like. They do always use them for toilets. However if you have a problem at a fixture I personally want an angle stop that I can shut off at that fixture. So if that is the case and you use angle stops why spend the extra money on the manifold? In my part of the country the use of the manifolds is waining. Most plumber are just using angle stops under/at the fixture.

Good Luck

Alan

Matt Meiser
05-04-2009, 10:30 PM
I'd still use stops. Not having them would be crazy IMHO. I like having enough shutoffs to be able to only shut down the room I'm working on because as an amateur I'm too slow.

My understanding is that with the manifold you are running a much smaller line from the source to each fixture. For hot water, that means much less cold water to flush from the line before the hot gets there. But maybe that's bad information. That's very appealing to me since our hot water heater is in one corner of a 26x66 ranch and the full baths are back to back about 60' of pipe away. It takes a long time and a lot of wasted water (1.38 gallons for a 3/4" trunk, plus whatever it takes to actually warm the pipe by my calculations) to flush the cold water from that trunk line. 1/2" pipe would only need .6 gallons, plus warming the pipe, which I would think also would be less for plastic vs. copper. And yes, ideally the water heater would have been more centralized, but it would have also have really cut into future ability to finish the basement so I'm kind of glad they did it the way they did.

C Scott McDonald
05-06-2009, 11:32 PM
Thanks for the input guys. I think I am just going to follow the Polybutylene. With so few faucets and stuff I dont think it is worth trying to redesign the entire system.

Thanks again,
Scott

Jay Jolliffe
05-07-2009, 6:27 AM
I plumbed my house with pex. Last house was copper. Pex is one run from the manifold to the fixture. No chance of a leak between the manifold & fixture. Using the home run method there is always a chance at the fittings. Home run is one main line then you branch off that to fixtures.

Peter Stahl
05-07-2009, 8:01 AM
I plumbed my house with pex. Last house was copper. Pex is one run from the manifold to the fixture. No chance of a leak between the manifold & fixture. Using the home run method there is always a chance at the fittings. Home run is one main line then you branch off that to fixtures.

Do you run each bathroom fixture separately?

Jay Jolliffe
05-07-2009, 11:26 AM
Each fixture has it's own line from the manifold. You use more pex but I like the idea there is no connection hidden in the wall. I can shut off each fixture at the manifold & at the fixture except the tub & shower I have to shut them off in the cellar.