Minimum PEX length and PEX support

[Spacemoose]

Hello all, I have some questions about PEX.

I'm reno-ing my main bath and replacing part of the shower plumbing with PEX. Because of the stud spacing (14" oc) and trying to center the rough-in with the tub (32" tub) I'll have 2 short lengths of PEX between fittings. One side will be approximately 2" (right hand side) and the other can be 3" to 4" (left hand side). The vertical lengths are about 26" long from the old copper to where I will eventually place some 90's and place the short lengths. So my questions are:

Are the short lengths ok? The only info I can find is another post mentioning a 2 inch minimum for PEX-A (uponor) and I have sharkbite brand.

Should I support the vertical length against the stud a few inches below where the 90 fitting will be. It seems like there will be a fair amount of strain on the fittings without any support.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jadnashua]

You seem to have enough room to avoid a 90-degree fitting, and just run the pex into the valve. The beauty of pex is that it is flexible. If you want, they make bend supports that would give you the 90-degrees that would take some tension off of the joint at the valve. Much cheaper than fittings, and one less thing to fail. Each fitting tends to add some restrictions to flow, although Uphonor's expansion fittings are much better than the crimp type in that regard. Avoiding extra fittings means less friction, which helps with the volume and pressure available. It won't look as neat, but who really cares behind the wall? People that run pex like it were copper are missing the best parts of using it in the first place.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Spacemoose]

I do have two of those bends but there is not quite enough room to use them. I may be able to squeeze one in on the hot side but the cold side I need another inch or 2 of space. I believe Sharkbite also says to have a minimum bend radius of 5" although SuperPEX (by BOW) says a minimum of 3". My basement shower has the same mixer valve and uses 90-degrees fittings and has good pressure so Im not to concerned.