PEX elbow fitting

[STEVEN INFANTE]

Has anyone ever encountered the following:

3/4" PEX heating lines with stainless pinch rings was installed for over a month working correctly.

Last night one elbow fitting end that was connected came off the fitting completely. They pinch ring was still on the PEX and properly crimped.

I have never seen a properly connected PEX crimp fitting separate.
Have anyone seen this?

 

[Cacher_Chick]

There are several many manufacturers of pipe and fittings, and imo, it is best to stick to all one brand. Some of the tools and clamps have go/no-go test fittings to confirm the proper adjustment of the tool.

Was the system pressure tested before it was put into operation?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[STEVEN INFANTE]

There are several many manufacturers of pipe and fittings, and imo, it is best to stick to all one brand. Some of the tools and clamps have go/no-go test fittings to confirm the proper adjustment of the tool.

Was the system pressure tested before it was put into operation?

Yes I pressure tested the system. In my years working with pex, I have seen split fittings, bad crimps, kinked pipe that breached, but never a good crimp on a fitting that popped off after the system was in use for a month.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

That would scare me a little bit....
I know that those Pex crimping tools can come out of calibration and not really
clamp down properly on the ring.... If that turns out to be the case I would be
worried about the rest of the system---

this is the reason I use only wirsbo aquapex...
I dont trust any of that crap

 

[STEVEN INFANTE]

That would scare me a little bit....
I know that those Pex crimping tools can come out of calibration and not really
clamp down properly on the ring.... If that turns out to be the case I would be
worried about the rest of the system---

this is the reason I use only wirsbo aquapex...
I dont trust any of that crap

I used barrier pex and the pinch rings from supplyhouse. I crimped them with a ryobi battery power tool. It has a built in gap test. This was for a apartment building where I took out a 1 mil btu steam and replaced with 6 IBC modulating/condensing units. In all the years I have been doing this, I can tell you I have seen a fair share of fails, but this was a first

 

[Cacher_Chick]

It might be good to clarify your description to make sure we understand what you mean "one elbow fitting end that was connected came off the fitting completely".

I am reading this to to mean that the fitting pushed out of the end of a section of tubing.

 

[STEVEN INFANTE]

Yes that is exactly what occurred. It was connected, pressure tested and in a operation for a month.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

The work you did looks good...
I guess those are condensing tankless systems of some kind...??
what brand are those anyway??


how much damage did this all cause when it blew loose??

 

[STEVEN INFANTE]

_

The work you did looks good...
I guess those are condensing tankless systems of some kind...??
what brand are those anyway??


how much damage did this all cause when it blew loose??

Luckily where the fitting was there was a crawl space underneath so no real damage. Just no heat as the the LWCO tripped, of course only on one of the coldest days of the year....

They are IBC condensing/modulating with DHW. I like them because they use a full tube manifold in the heat transfer block as opposed to plate system so less chance of calcifying blockage and they only have 73 interal parts as opposed to triangle tube, navian, etc. which have many more