Recommended PEX fitting manufacturers

[Dovid1365]

I'm seeing online sellers of PEX products selling bluefin (supplyhouse.com) and everhot (pexuniverse.com). I can't seem to be able to find anything on these companies and am wondering if anyone else has info on reliability. They are significantly cheaper than products that my local supply house or big box stores carry. I have seen other similar threads but no one seems to mention either of these two companies.

 

[Terry]

I have no idea, I'm only using Uponor pipe and fittings with the expansion joints.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[JohnCT]

I'm seeing online sellers of PEX products selling bluefin (supplyhouse.com) and everhot (pexuniverse.com). I can't seem to be able to find anything on these companies and am wondering if anyone else has info on reliability. They are significantly cheaper than products that my local supply house or big box stores carry. I have seen other similar threads but no one seems to mention either of these two companies.

I can't answer your question, but do have some advice that transcends all professional trades: sometimes a savings can cause a thousand times more misery in the long run.

Imagine an unknown fitting failing and causing water damage. I might try these unknown fittings in my unfinished basement, but I wouldn't use them in areas where a leak can be a nightmare. I'll never use more than a hundred fittings in my lifetime as a homeowner, but I can see where someone uses hundreds a week and would benefit from a lower cost item if there's no downside. But what if there is? It's hard to walk back a decision once it's made.

I still need to repipe my house, and from what I learned from Terry and dozens of other pros here who donate their time and advice, I'm using Uponor PEX A and Uponor fittings. I do NOT want to see water coming out of the ceiling again..

John

 

[ShadowAviator]

Bluefin is stuff imported from China (According to SupplyHouse). I don't know if its good or bad. I think they are okay for things like plastic clamps. I just don't know if I can trust them on the important stuff.

I think Bluefin is using a lesser quality brass than the bigger companies. It may work, but the risk is there.

Its hard to find anything about these companies and what materials they use. On the other hand, I can call Viega or Uponor and ask them what quality brass and whatever else I want to know. Bluefin doesn't even have a website, at least not one I can find.

I am doing the same thing you are. Researching who to go with, what to use, etc.

What I have learned is pick a big reliable name and stick with them.

Uponor gets really high marks. They use Pex-A with the expansion fitting system.

Viega seems good, too. That's who I am going with for my place. They use Pex-B, and use a few different fitting methods.

(I would have gone Uponor, but I don't have a supplier close to me. My project is also fairly small.)

With the way pex is typically run, you don't really end up needing very many fittings. The extra cost is worth it for piece of mind.
Poor plastic will crack, poor brass can corrode, poor clamps will loosen or break.

I guess my point is this, you can't tell if something is good or bad until it breaks. So the only thing you can do is put trust in who is making it.

 

[Gsmith22]

supplyhouse carries uponor pex A products so not sure why you wouldn't just use that if ordering from them. they will have it to your door next day via their shipping methods so it pretty much makes them local to everyone. A little planning, maybe over ordering some parts and you won't have to leave your house. They return unused items too. Its seamless. You could probably find some old posts of mine discussing how I won't even bother with a local plumbing supply store anymore they are so good.

Pex A is vastly superior to Pex B. It isn't even close as far as I am concerned. There are lots of players in the Pex B market but very few in the Pex A market. I suspect is is entirely based on cost with Pex A being more expensive. You repipe once. Cost of these materials is like a roundoff error with respect to labor costs, refinishing costs, or heaven forbid a leak that turns your basement/house into a swimming pool. And as best as I can tell, all of the various pex failures over the past 20 years have been essentially confined to the Pex B manufacturers cutting corners.

 

[ShadowAviator]

Just went to pexuniverse's website and noticed this comment.

"Good news: all lead-free PEX crimp fittings sold at PexUniverse.com are now made with C69300 brass alloy, also known as ECO brass. Unlike the standard C46500 lead-free brass used by most manufacturers, ECO brass is 100% dezincification resistant and has higher tensile and yield strength, making it a superior material."

I think EcoBrass is what Uponor and Viega use.

 

[CanadianHydronics]

Bluefin and Everhot are private labelled direct Chinese import products for those e-commerce sites. You won't find any information on them anywhere else because for all intents and purposes those brands don't exist outside of sales through those suppliers specifically

 

[Jeff H Young]

My guess is bluefin and everhot exist outside of internet sales under differant labels. Ive tried some bluefin parts that werent pex and was not impressed though not nessesarily dissatisfied they were about as expected not great.
Gsmith22 I dont do much new home piping but didnt even know that almost all faliures are with type b. poor manufacturing. Ive never seen a pro use type b on new homes Ive got some new homes going up been wanting to take a look and see what they are using see the latest and greatest of new homes.
I watched a video on you tube pushing type b expansion Neverheard of that! claimes that the pipe is far superior way tougher than type A. it is harder to work with according to him and thats the atraction to type A because its so workable.
Im leaning toward a expansion gun but just been doing copper still

 

[Gsmith22]

I'm not a plumber. Just a guy with acidic well water that needed to replace very thin copper from 30yrs of exposure. Pex was the way forward (after figuring out how to adjust the pH of the well water). So I did lots of research. as best as I could tell, Pex B is the diy/handman version and Pex A is the professional version. It might be a generalization but more truth than not. Went with Uponor as that was more readily available (nearby plumbing supply and supplyhouse.com). I couldn't find any instance of an uponor pex a connection leaking online. Pex b leak photographs are everywhere on the internet including the whole dezincification debacle related to Zurn and their pex b stuff. I think most of the leaks are because there can be too much variation in how a ring gets crimped. I am sure someone could do it, but I find it impossible to mess up a uponor expansion connection. Plus you get larger ports through connections with expansion/pex a. Uponor also has the whole logic system with remote manifold tees. Its a really well thought out system and made the decision easy. As best as I can tell, the only knock on Uponor is cost and thats because everyone is comparing it to pex b Home Despot apollo crap. And frankly compared with copper, cost of pex is a non issue. If I was a plumber and wanted to incorporate pex work, it would be uponor pex A. Uponor does use the Eco brass although I mostly used their EP 90 and tee fittings.