Hot water piping...pressure drop

Jack

This is an addendum to the previous thread. The thread kinda drifted, as they do, toa pipe sizing, flow, pex/copper direction and I thoght I'd share my experience with copper vs pex. My upstairs bathrooms are back to back. The common wall is where the piping comes up from the basement. On the hall bath I ran Uponor pex. First time I've used it. I used as few brass fittings as possible and on the 90's used the long radius bend support. New Symmons and a good Symmons shower head. All okay in operation.



On the master bath, with the way the copper was laid out I just added to it and it is 1/2" copper to the shower. Both showers are 12' from the riser wall. Same shower valve/head. I have substantially more pressure in the master bath than the hall bath. I pulled components and checked them out and could find no difference. I can only attribute the pressure drop in the hall bath to the "bushing affect" of the brass fittings on the pex



Based upon my experience, and my preference I think on the remodel of my new place, I'll stick with copper pipe

jonny88

pex or copper

im glad that you shared that experience with us.thankfully in nyc we are not allowed to use pex on potable water YET.outside of the 5 boroughs though you are.with pex they only want homeruns used to each fixture.if pex is done properly and supported properly the job would take as long as a copper job.i once asked a plumber on long island if he charges less for pex piping,his response was we charge more for copper.a friend of mine who was a plumber in poland said that before a house over there got signed of the water had to be up to a certain standard and every year tested when using pex..sorry to go on,but again no fittings on pex or else you get what you experienced.

meplumber

I concur with johnny.

Great observation Jack.



Most of the houses that we do use copper water lines to facilitate draining in the winter.  For remodels, where complete access isn't always available, we oversize the pex 1 size or homerun each fixture where possible.  One of the first houses that I did with stick Wirsbo and EP fittings, I experienced the very same things which you describe. 



There are a lot of houses in this area where the well water has very low TDS.  This seems to eat copper.  If treatment is not in the budget, I will use pex and EP fittings.  But I will home run as much as possible and over size where its not.