First, thanks for any advice or feedback. Sorry if this is a bit long, just want to give detail.
I have a five year old house which is plumbed all with Uponor Aquapex. This house is my first exposure to it.
I have a tiny bit of experience with Pex B (crimp) types, and a good amount with copper. I really like the idea of the expansion system, but this intimidates me a bit, mostly because mistakes seem harder to fix.
Nonetheless, I went ahead and spliced in a couple circuits to add another sillcock in the back of the house, and a hot/cold one in the garage. Both went in and work, but not without issue, which is where my questions come in.
At first, I bought one of the manual tools, thinking - "I'm only doing a few connections". Hah. I did some practice connections on scrap pieces of both 1/2 and 3/4 which seemed to go fine, but my first attempt on the real thing was a mess. Teeing into a 3/4 in the joist cavity overhead with not great space, I ran into several instances of the ring sliding up (didn't know about this issue if pipe was wet at the time). Cut it it back, try again, repeat. But on an established line without much slack available, I was in trouble. Finally got it on the third try. After that, bought the DeWalt expander, knowing that my next splice would be into 1" (and eventually plan to finish the basement).
This is where my first question comes.
For the hot/cold one, I tied in two 3/4 lines to the 1" mains. On one side of the cold, I either didn't expand enough, or was too slow, and wasnt able to get the fitting pushed in all the way to the stops. There is about a 1/16" gap. How concerned about that should I be?
It's not leaking, and has been in place for about three weeks without issue. I've even tried to "shock" it by opening and slamming valves and depressurizing/refilling the whole system several times, with no apparent movement.
Assuming that it's bad, and I should redo it, is the next question. The whole house (and I) used the EP plastic fittings. I know Uponor says they cannot be re-used but I've not been able to find an explanation anywhere of why. Is it a strength thing, where if they've been compressed on once, they risk breaking if done again, or just the likelihood of leakage from trying to get them apart and scoring them?
In this case, re-using it wouldn't be a hard fix, just need to splice in a short section of 1" and a union on the one side. I have no slack on any side to cut it out and pull the ends in to a new fitting.
If I cant re-use it, then the only thing I can maybe do is cut the whole tee out and replace it with short pieces and unions all around, IF I can get in the space to do it. That, and six joints instead of three seems less desirable.
I'll add some pics as well. Any experience/advice would be greatly appreciated.
One last, semi-related ques- I heard or read recently that the Uponor Pex A should not be used with hot water recirculation systems, as apparently the constant heat and flow breaks down the pipe and causes failures. My house has a recirc, which has been running almost the whole time. Does anyone have any knowledge of this being an issue? I do notice that the hot side of my white 1" main lines is quite a bit discolored compared to the cold side.
Thanks again for any help.
I have a five year old house which is plumbed all with Uponor Aquapex. This house is my first exposure to it.
I have a tiny bit of experience with Pex B (crimp) types, and a good amount with copper. I really like the idea of the expansion system, but this intimidates me a bit, mostly because mistakes seem harder to fix.
Nonetheless, I went ahead and spliced in a couple circuits to add another sillcock in the back of the house, and a hot/cold one in the garage. Both went in and work, but not without issue, which is where my questions come in.
At first, I bought one of the manual tools, thinking - "I'm only doing a few connections". Hah. I did some practice connections on scrap pieces of both 1/2 and 3/4 which seemed to go fine, but my first attempt on the real thing was a mess. Teeing into a 3/4 in the joist cavity overhead with not great space, I ran into several instances of the ring sliding up (didn't know about this issue if pipe was wet at the time). Cut it it back, try again, repeat. But on an established line without much slack available, I was in trouble. Finally got it on the third try. After that, bought the DeWalt expander, knowing that my next splice would be into 1" (and eventually plan to finish the basement).
This is where my first question comes.
For the hot/cold one, I tied in two 3/4 lines to the 1" mains. On one side of the cold, I either didn't expand enough, or was too slow, and wasnt able to get the fitting pushed in all the way to the stops. There is about a 1/16" gap. How concerned about that should I be?
It's not leaking, and has been in place for about three weeks without issue. I've even tried to "shock" it by opening and slamming valves and depressurizing/refilling the whole system several times, with no apparent movement.
Assuming that it's bad, and I should redo it, is the next question. The whole house (and I) used the EP plastic fittings. I know Uponor says they cannot be re-used but I've not been able to find an explanation anywhere of why. Is it a strength thing, where if they've been compressed on once, they risk breaking if done again, or just the likelihood of leakage from trying to get them apart and scoring them?
In this case, re-using it wouldn't be a hard fix, just need to splice in a short section of 1" and a union on the one side. I have no slack on any side to cut it out and pull the ends in to a new fitting.
If I cant re-use it, then the only thing I can maybe do is cut the whole tee out and replace it with short pieces and unions all around, IF I can get in the space to do it. That, and six joints instead of three seems less desirable.
I'll add some pics as well. Any experience/advice would be greatly appreciated.
One last, semi-related ques- I heard or read recently that the Uponor Pex A should not be used with hot water recirculation systems, as apparently the constant heat and flow breaks down the pipe and causes failures. My house has a recirc, which has been running almost the whole time. Does anyone have any knowledge of this being an issue? I do notice that the hot side of my white 1" main lines is quite a bit discolored compared to the cold side.
Thanks again for any help.
