Recently discovered that a number of PEX tubing manufacturers do not recommend the use of Shark Bite and other push-on fittings with their tubing.

Wirsbo/Uponor, Zurn and Viega in particular, especially on their colored tubing.

The color coating is applied after the extrusion process and can be stripped from the inner layer of the tubing by the push-on fittings clamping ring.

I've used the push-on fittings a few times over the past five years as a transition from copper to PEX, but only in crawl spaces, so I'm going to be revisiting these jobs over the next few weeks to see if there are any issues I need to be concerned about -- Thankfully we seldom use color coated PEX tubing.

I'll try to get back to you guys after I've checked out the jobs for issues.

Hi Steve...

I was under the impression that if we used the plastic sleeves/inserts provided with the fittings it was OK to use sharkbite or gatorbite fittings on PEX tubing.

Like you, however, I almost never use them, but have a few times on copper pipes.

I'll check on my end and post back on this as well.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Hi Steve...

I was under the impression that if we used the plastic sleeves/inserts provided with the fittings it was OK to use sharkbite or gatorbite fittings on PEX tubing.

Like you, however, I almost never use them, but have a few times on copper pipes.

I'll check on my end and post back on this as well.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Mark

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Stopped by a job we did on the East side about 2 years ago this morning (we transitioned a shower valve install off 3/4" copper branch lines with 3/4" inch Cash Acme push-on tee's to red and blue Wirsbo PEX).

The outer colored coating of the PEX stripped off when I pulled the fittings apart -- Scary.. . Thank Gawd they were in a crawlspace instead of buried in the ceiling above the dining room.

The fix was easy -- I left the push-on tee's in place and sweated Wirsbo copper to PEX adapters onto a six" copper nipples and put it all back together.

While I would never bury a push-on fitting inside a wall or ceiling, I feel pretty good about using them for copper tubing -- I took a Double-Jack to my first use of the push-on fittings and beat the snot out of 'em, no leaks.

As for the Copper/PEX transitions already in place -- I'm sending out a number of e-mails tonight to set up appointments with the Homeowners to repair the transitions before they rear up and bite off my butt.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm still sold on both push-on fittings and PEX tubing -- Just not on using the two together.

I'm going to try to upload some photo's in the next week or so to illustrate the point I'm trying to make, hopefully the light will be better than it was this morning.