PEX - cold water pipe 2x size of hot water pipe?

[RedSpark]

Hi, I have a house built in 2017 and it has PEX throughout. It looks like the cold water PEX is almost 2x the size of the hot water pipe. This doesn't seem normal. In one of the pics you can even see that one of the brackets that holds it down has been broken off from the swelling.

Any advice on what to do? One other piece that might be helpful is that the water pressure was really low when they built the house so when my wife mentioned it to one of the workers he said that nowadays "they" (the code?) restricts pressure to be way too low and turned it way up for us.

If this is because the pressure is too high, how do I turn it down and measure it? I took a pic of where the water comes into the house in case that helps.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Eman85]

I'm not a plumber. What size is the PEX, should be written on the pipe. Buy a gauge at HD or Lowes and check the water pressure.

 

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[John Gayewski]

I'm thinking your fine and there is no problem. You can go to hose faucet and measure the pressure with a cheap gauge from your local hardware store just to see what your pressure is, but no municipal or well water pressure is gonna make pex burst or swell to a larger size. You'd need an ungodly amount of pressure (probably around 250) to burst or swell pex pipe. This amount of pressure isn't possible or likley under almost any circumstances. Besides your water heater has a relief valve on it which would be the first point of failure. You'd see water seeping at 150 psi or so from the relief valve on the water heater.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

Those are 2 separate sizes of pipe, not swelling of tubing. Water piping is sized based on the fixture load. Cold water is has more fixture units because there are some fixtures that are cold only like a toilet and hose spigots.

 

[Jeff H Young]

In a normal house we have at least 2 sizes of water pipe 1/2 and 3/4 for a little house or one that w2as cheaply plumbed 2 or 3 bath houses likely have 3 sizes and 4 bath house might have 1 1/4 , 1 inch , 3/4 and 1/2 . my house is 3 bath with 1 1/2" main So I might have 5 differant sizes.
You go to store and buy a water pressure guage under 20 bucks or amazon put it on a hose bib to test pressure very easy

 

[Reach4]

Besides the fixture load, having 1/2 inch hot instead of 3/4 inch lets the hot water arrive sooner.

The OD of PEX is 1/8 inch larger than the nominal size.

 

[RedSpark]

Thank you all for the replies. Boy did they put my mind at ease! I was picturing having all my cold water pipes burst and needing to be replaced.