Should I redo these plumbing "joints"

[AliInBaltimore]

I've had two plumbers who've looked at this previous work and highly recommend redoing it. They both said the plumbing in green was done well, and the one in red is likely to give problems down the road. I think the issue was with the red items being nonthreaded, but I can't recall for certain at the moment. Could anyone offer me further advice on how to investigate if this is an issue? (Click the pictures for a larger view.)

 

[Reach4]

I am not a plumber. The glue looks unusual.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

Many plumbers do not like Sharkbite fittings. Installed properly, they work fine. They cost lots more than a 'conventional' fitting, but go together easily. It should outlive you...I'd leave it alone...it is one easy way to convert from one type of pipe material to another, and may even be preferable if its in an area where the heat from a torch might be an issue or difficult to contain. The alternative would be to glue on an adapter fitting, then screw an adapter from the other pipe, with more potential failure points.

 

[hj]

The green ones look like ProPress, but if so they would have needed a special tool to install them.

 

[AliInBaltimore]

The green ones look like ProPress, but if so they would have needed a special tool to install them.

Yes! That's what the green ones were called. One of the plumbers mentioned it and said he didn't have that special tool, so he does it another way.

 

[sirbOOmdotcom]

I'm not a professional plumber so, grain of salt, but all of that looks fine to me. I have one push fitting in my house (ball valve shut off for hot water heater feed) because I couldn't get the darn pipe to drain to solder a CC ball valve and the few plumbers that've been to my house (for septic work, getting estimates) have always pointed that out and whined about it trying to get me to have it replaced. It's solidly mounted, has never leaked, it's installed properly, and I'm not about to replace something that doesn't need fixing just because. Fact is, I'm not worried about it and I don't need to be. The work done to your pipes looks to be done with care. If I saw my level of soldering skills within that picture (I can seal it up but I'm no beauty-technician), then maybe I'd second guess confidence in the work. But it's your house, do what you and your trusted plumber feel is the best thing to do. Personally, I'd want to switch over to all copper or all PEX and dump the CPVC, if I could. Every house I've ever been in plumbed with CPVC I sense a common weird taste in their tap water (without knowing they had CPVC before tasting the water). Every time.

 

[AliInBaltimore]

Ugh, I wish you hadn't written the water thing, now it'll always be in the back of my mind. My current plumber is pro-CPVC because he is always getting calls for PEX installs that have failed (i.e., developed a leak.) From his experience, it would seem PEX requires more skill to install correctly.

 

[Jadnashua]

People that grew up installing copper are much more comfortable with CPVC...same type of fittings, same way to run it, measure, cut, slap some glue on, and continue.

Pex takes new tools and a different mindset. It's been in use in Europe since the mid-50's when introduced by Wirsbo (now called Uphonor). You can mess up any install. There is a right way, and a wrong way.