Monya saw an episode of "This Old House" where they described a new type of plumbing connection. It's called "SharkBite" and it works sort of like the Chinese finger trap toy. You simply slide a pipe into the fitting and it holds. No clamps, no solder, no sweat! It works with copper, or Pex, or even PVC (not that I recommend PVC). Best of all, if you make a mistake, there's a little plastic ring you can use to disconnect it, so you can reconnect it again later. No parts are consumed in the disconnect/reconnect.
It took me a whole day to remove the iron, PVC, and Pex combination shown in the first photo. Most of that time was extracting the iron pipe from the wall. Then it took four hours of measuring and fitting to assemble the copper/SharkBite combination in the wall, and about 30 minutes to measure, cut, and assemble the Pex/SharkBite combination shown in the second photo.
SharkBite fittings are a little expensive, but they don't leak, and they snap together with a click, saving a ton of time. This assembly job would have taken me three days and a call for help from a sweat-joint expert (Dad) if I did it the old way.
The ony drawback is that SharkBite fittings do not hold the pipe rigid. So our bathtub and shower fixtures wobble. I left the wall open on the back side so I can still do something about that if I can think of how.
4 comments:
Just to clarify, I saw "solderless" fastening on "This Old House", not Shark Bite per se.
Also, we did build most of the behind the wall fitting of rigid materials such as copper and galvanized pipes. If I recall on the tv show they did say to build rigid manifolds and use the solderless pieces elsewhere.
However, they are amazing. I will never be afraid of a leak again. with a saw, or pex cutter and an Shark Bite fastener, back in business! It was so fast and fun it felt like cheating!
How often, after we finish a job and discover its drawbacks ("floppy fixtures") do we remember the little subtleties that prevent these drawbacks! Also, the soldered manifold subassemblies are relatively easy to put together and I assume easy to attach to the rest of the plumbing via "SharkBite" fittings.
I need to instal a booster from the main line that comes into our new house because our water pressure is dismal. I am probably going to hire someone to do it, but I may do a little internet research on the shark bite and see if I think that I can do it myself since I wouldn't have to sweat the pipes. I am no Bob Villa or Norm so I doubt that this is something I can do, but worth looking into anyway. Thanks for the idea.
Tom
Ah HAH! So she does know what it feels like to cheat!
Maybe in another two-score years you'll get her to admit that she had that feeling while playing cards with you.
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