Using hydraulic fittings as a last resort in home plumbing

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Milesmoony

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Hi, this is my first post here. I just finished replacing all of my plumbing and it all came out great, no leaks (2 sinks, 1 shower). I used pex piping with quick connect fittings and on demand hot water. I ran a hot a cold line with tee’s going to each fixture and I used the sharkbite faucet kit for both sinks. Where I had to get creative was with the shower. I used a 2 knob shower valve with a riser to the shower head. This meant three npsm threads poking through the shower wall. Since I have a sliding door going behind the shower wall I had very little clearance for fittings. I needed four nps female swivel to npt male elbow fittings to hook everything up in the tight space. The only fitting I could find was a hydraulic fitting, I’ll include the link. I hooked up the pex pipe to a sharkbite quick connect nptf fitting, threaded it with pipe dope onto the nptm end of the elbow and then swivelled the other end to the shower valve. It’s been a couple months with no leaks but I’m concerned there might be some reason I shouldn’t have used a hydraulic fitting. What little info I could find said don’t do it. My question is - why not? I am concerned about the longevity of the fitting and the health risks since I do not know the material of the fitting. Here is the one I used:

https://www.apache-inc.com/CMS/apac...t&documentId=2825868DF6879B6686257F4900620445

Any thoughts/feedback would be appreciated!
 

Jadnashua

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It looks like it's a galvanized pipe fitting. If so, two issues...dielectric corrosion, and rusting. If it's not galvanized, it might be some other alloy, and probably not rated for potable water use.

Also, keep in mind that a new or remodel where you're changing the valve requires a valve with antiscald properties. A two-handle, simple valve will not provide that feature without a lot of extra equipment and convolution.
 

Sylvan

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"A two-handle, simple valve will not provide that feature " <<< not so

There are several manufactures that do have anti scald features such as pressure or temperature balance


For example Delta has two handles one for temperature control and the other for volume
 

Jadnashua

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"A two-handle, simple valve will not provide that feature " <<< not so

There are several manufactures that do have anti scald features such as pressure or temperature balance


For example Delta has two handles one for temperature control and the other for volume
From the sound it if, it is a simple, old-style two handle valve. Yes, I know there are other two handle volume/temperature, or volume/thermostatic valves, but it doesn't really sound like this is one of them. I have a long discussion on the various types in the Tutorial section that's been there for awhile. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....rmostatically-controlled-shower-valves.63931/
 
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The only thing that I would be concerned with is the fitting rusting over time and clogging the shower head. Additionally I don't it would be NSF approved. Functionally it's way overkill, but there is a slight chance it is leaching of something into the water, but as long as you're not drinking water from the shower it is not an issue.
 
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Jadnashua

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Don't know if those fittings contain any zinc, but if they do, look up dezincification.
 
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