Split Uponor Pex at Bend Support

Uponor/Wirsbo Expanding Pex is Gahbage!

Rip it all out and put in copper

jakewilcox said:

@MACPLUMB777: because of PEX or Spartan?

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The spartan ABS. Jerry is really old.

goeswiththeflow said:

You would be in the extreme minority with that opinion, based on most guys that I've talked to. If for no other reason than by getting beat out of jobs on cost alone.

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Did you not see the winky face?

Viega Pex has never had these issues, too bad they stopped making FostaPex.

My boss ordered the pallets of 1/2" and 3/4" FostaPex rolls the supply house had for remaining stock and 20' sticks of 1". I get the feeling we'll be plumbing a few more houses in propress before we start using only the blue/red crap. If I built a 10,000 sq. ft. house with regular pex, I would freak at the idea of a rodent causing leaks anywhere.

DDDave said:

............ Anything special about Uponor's material? Probly not, these plastics have been around a while.

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I disagree, I've seen a lot of HDPE/pex/uhmwpe and never seen it fail like this. Have you seen any other brands of pex fail like this?

Regardless I don't think it's a formula issue, I think it's poor quality control. My guess is they have to get it just right or it does this. Maybe the tolerances are wider o other types of pex so they are easier to produce correctly. Maybe Uponor/Wirsbo is trying to make too much too fast or just has poor quality control.

I've seen enough Uponor/Wirsbo to know that this isn't normal. At this point I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and not claim that all of their stuff is bad, just a couple production runs.

DDDave said:

What's to disagree with? I coulda said it better than I did, maybe. You said it better than I did. The stuff cracks when the temp's not right and these plastics have been around for decades

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You said you didn't think there was anything special about Uponor's material, I disagree. I think they are using a process to make the material different than any other HDPE and that process is difficult to get correct.

I think it is this difficulty that is causing all these issues.

Logtec said:

I know a guy who stores his pex in his backyard unprotected, from UV/sun for and weather. There is prob going to be a bunch of problem trailing behind him, over the years

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We had a guy move here who was used to working on slums. He did most of his waterlines in cpvc. Mostly basement repipes, softener installs, repiping kitchen sinks, small stuff usually less than 30' total. That was only a couple year span ending like 15 years ago. At least once a year we have to remove some of that crap that's cracked.