Why would NIBCO/CPI Durapex PEX split (lengthwise) and leak?

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Master Plumber Mark

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I get to go out and give this guy an estimate to re-pipe his 4 bathroom home that has this brand of PEX
throughout the place........ it too is splitting lengthwise down the pipes.... the brand is called ki-tech
with some sort of aluminium core within it so it is nearly impossible to adapt to the stuff ......


There is presently a class action lawsuit on this junk and i will take some better
pictures of it when I get to see the crime scene..... notice the bulge in the one fitting.

gonna tell him 10 to 15 k...

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Mikey

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Is there any possibility of using the existing pipe to pull a new pipe through (at least) some parts of the structure?
 

Reach4

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What's different is the location -- I'm located in Southern California; my leak was inside a wall; and it wasn't the red PEX, but rather the white PEX. It's cold expansion tubing, so no metal rings or clamps to fail. Like the OP, my tubing has developed lengthwise cracks that are worse nearest the water heater. My plumber had to cut it back quite a bit to even be able to expand the tubing without it cracking and splitting during the expansion process. None of the exposed tubing had any brand markings on it,
Could it be that this PEX was not PEX A, and thus not suitable for expansion connections? :eek: I would expect PEX A to be well marked.
 

Freddie780

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Hello Everyone - I have my home with PEX plumbing and have experienced three PEX failures in the last 60-days. All on the hot water PEX - 2 within 10-15 feet of each other and one on a main. All have ben in the crawl space so far so I am lucky as the crawl space is encapsulated. We have a water recirc and transitioned from tank to tankless 2-3 years ago. Our brand was ZURN and I have submitted to the manufacturer and then have been in touch. Their questions were:

"I have received your warranty claim form signed December 8, 2020. I would like to schedule a time to discuss your claim after we have had a chance to inspect the pipe submitted. In the meantime would you please advise if your system is on a recirculation pump and the setting of the hot water tank? Are the leaks on the hot or cold water side and please advise how far apart? I will follow up with you to schedule a call for next week."

My fear is that they are going to find every reason to say this is my fault. The home is 12 years old and we are the original owners.

Oh - the issues we have seen are inline leaks, slits and holes in the three leaks thus far.
 

Master Plumber Mark

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Hello Everyone - I have my home with PEX plumbing and have experienced three PEX failures in the last 60-days. All on the hot water PEX - 2 within 10-15 feet of each other and one on a main. All have ben in the crawl space so far so I am lucky as the crawl space is encapsulated. We have a water recirc and transitioned from tank to tankless 2-3 years ago. Our brand was ZURN and I have submitted to the manufacturer and then have been in touch. Their questions were:

"I have received your warranty claim form signed December 8, 2020. I would like to schedule a time to discuss your claim after we have had a chance to inspect the pipe submitted. In the meantime would you please advise if your system is on a recirculation pump and the setting of the hot water tank? Are the leaks on the hot or cold water side and please advise how far apart? I will follow up with you to schedule a call for next week."

My fear is that they are going to find every reason to say this is my fault. The home is 12 years old and we are the original owners.

Oh - the issues we have seen are inline leaks, slits and holes in the three leaks thus far.


you are in trouble and probably ought to get some prices to change out the PEX to some other brand like Wirsbo Aquapex.... from your local plumbers... I don't know if you have a second story home or just a ranch but the Zurn PEX
is going to start popping like pop corn on you and it would be wise to change out everything at least above the crawl space or you are going to come home to a catastrophic failure taking out the whole first floor of the home.... (you don't want that)


it is wiser to get the prices to completely re-pipe the home NOW. Waiting for Zurn to throw you a compensation package towards getting it resolved could take a long time and you could totally die from a thousand cuts before they finally cough up the money........


 

Freddie780

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you are in trouble and probably ought to get some prices to change out the PEX to some other brand like Wirsbo Aquapex.... from your local plumbers... I don't know if you have a second story home or just a ranch but the Zurn PEX
is going to start popping like pop corn on you and it would be wise to change out everything at least above the crawl space or you are going to come home to a catastrophic failure taking out the whole first floor of the home.... (you don't want that)


it is wiser to get the prices to completely re-pipe the home NOW. Waiting for Zurn to throw you a compensation package towards getting it resolved could take a long time and you could totally die from a thousand cuts before they finally cough up the money........
It is a two story. That would leave 2 bathrooms upstairs potentially at risk. Our home is 4200 square feet and I was quoted $3,300 to replace all exposed pex plumbing in the crawl space up through all bathrooms (2.5) kitchen and laundry room on first floor. Everything is accessible wihtout having to tear our drywall. The crawl runs the full 2,400 square foot print of the home underneath and ranges from 4.5-7' in height with encapsulation. You are saying to just go ahead and have that done?

I wa told to go with Uponor PEX. Any thoughts on that?
 

Master Plumber Mark

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Aquapex and Uponor PEX are the same thing... its also called Wirsbo
Its what we use and is probably the best available

I would get the second story done first and worry about the crawl space on another day
$3300 is not too bad for everything except the second floor but that is the more critical area that you want to really focus on...

If it springs a huge leaks in the crawl space it's not a disaster.... if it springs a huge leaks upstairs and you are not home then you got a terrible mess on your hands---
 

Tuttles Revenge

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Some scary stuff out there.

I'm sooo glad that when we were approached to test out PEX piping that it was Wirsbo that approached us and So glad that I never once even considered using a cheaper brand to save money.
 

Master Plumber Mark

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Some scary stuff out there.

I'm sooo glad that when we were approached to test out PEX piping that it was Wirsbo that approached us and So glad that I never once even considered using a cheaper brand to save money.


Their are many companies that have gone belly up due to Zurn PEX and one called Kitech...
One huge company in Vegas with 40 trucks shut their doors and declared bankruptcy just to get around the lawsuits over Kitech.
 
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