Do sharkbite fittings work OK for radiant HW heating? Plastic pex A fittings?
Just trying to get out of a design mass. Does sharkbite last?
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Sharkbites do work, but I would never use them in a permanent installation. Mad Dog
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Pretty much anything you can do with a Sharkbite you can do with proper crimp fittings. The Sharkbites are great, but not permanent.Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
Mess means I ran the pex once, hated the design and future options for my house. I don't do this for a living, obviously. I cut through new holes on joists but had to cut off the pex B fittings. If I was doing this from beginning I would use pex A. I have to buy at least one O2 pex stick and couple it to pex B to reuse some old pex B and their fittings, valves. I screwed up once so I might do so again. I lack good spatial skills. One screw up was to run where the previous owner ran his copper.
I am tired of it. Once built and running someone else could always repipe however they want. Suspended ceiling this time, not the sheet rock I had to remove for many reasons. The house first floor inside wall is 6 inches past/outside of the basement wall below which is paneling over 2x2s on concrete. Add the distance from wall to radiator pipes and get maybe 9 inches from kitchen wall nook that I want the radiators to fit in under the windows without protruding into a possible future walking space rather than near table. This design constraint is hard for me as that is not my skill set to visualize.
I tried to create an above floor piping arrangement with copper but it looked terrible. Sharkbite would allow me to reuse some pex B without destroying it if I had to remove it.
https://i.imgur.com/gfrh3bU.jpgHome owner near Minneapolis with cast iron radiators, one non working slant fin now ripped out, and hot water heat.1 -
Both press and grip fittings depend on an o rings seal, aka known as a sealing membrane in the press world😂
The difference between those is the mechanism that does the holding onto.
Officially speaking both fittings have temperature and pressure, fluid type listings. As such if you are working within those parameters, the answer is yes.
Beyond that personal opinion and preference takes over.
Can an o ring outlast a copper sweat joint, or NPT threaded connection? Stay tuned.
Cost is another consideration. The only entire hydronics I’ve seen with grip fittings is when a manufacture maybe donates the system to an influencer😳Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream
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I had planned on only using sharkbite fittings for the elbows under where the radiator pipes come down. That is to allow easier removal for badly needed new flooring or radiator painting some day. If they leak it will be obvious and they can be replaced. BTW i managed to screw up the sharkbite fittings. One pex pipe was scuffed and also one copper pipe.Home owner near Minneapolis with cast iron radiators, one non working slant fin now ripped out, and hot water heat.1
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Key to using any O ring fitting is using an external reamer. Actually get the type that reams inside and outside of the tube. A sharp edge from a tubing cut can shave off the
O- ring.
No harm in reaming the outside of the pex so it slides in easy.
Sand the copper also to have a smooth scratch free surface, open mesh sand cloth works well.Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream
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Look! I've been in that spot in my own house...eventually you just have to get it done! Use the sharkbites with ZERO guilt with a plan to replace someday...Notice I didn't say you! My small gas HW boiler for the radiant was a neat clean safe job but but it AINT going in a magazine.. bushings, galvanized, black, copper...whatever I had in the barn ran out of money & time burs its worked fine for last 20 years. Mad 🐕 Dog
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and eventually you'll correct it!Mad Dog_2 said:Look! I've been in that spot in my own house...eventually you just have to get it done! Use the sharkbites with ZERO guilt with a plan to replace someday...Notice I didn't say you! My small gas HW boiler for the radiant was a neat clean safe job but but it AINT going in a magazine.. bushings, galvanized, black, copper...whatever I had in the barn ran out of money & time burs its worked fine for last 20 years. Mad 🐕 Dog
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Someone will...ain't gotta be me.....but If I ever DO get downtime, its getting ripped the HECK out! Ha ha mad dog1
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“when I get time, I’m going to re-do that”. We’ve all all got a few of those projects hanging around.Such as this make on break control circuit which doesn’t fit in the box (circa 2021).
PS: at least the crack in the foundation got fixed in 2021!
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I had to repair a frozen pipe during our first winter in this house and there was no way to isolate the pipe from the rest of the system. I installed a Shakebite ball valve with the intention of soldering in a replacement later. It has been 14 years and the Sharkbite is still leak free.
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my main perspective on sharkbite use is that there are natural limits to pipe movement. I did have one in a basement that was relatively free pipe that actually let off, but if the piping is constrained near the joint i worry less. worst case is a drip and not a waterfall. if this is done with hangers or clips, easy enough to do after but nearby floor or wall pentetrations, heavy rads, etc. can be their own restraints, but you have to be smart about how to do a good job putting the fittings together. in the NFN department. you can get make up unions to standard pex press if your concern is ability to pull the rads for floor finishing or replacement. but whats in the basement. you could also just cut the pex and join after the floor is done . . . no?
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"make up unions to standard pex press"
What does this mean. is there an example? How would you make a radiator easy to remove without a plumber?I could only think of a sharkbite elbow. Say there is a copper pipe or galvanized extending down.
Home owner near Minneapolis with cast iron radiators, one non working slant fin now ripped out, and hot water heat.0 -
A radiator is always easy to remove — or at least disconnet from the plumbing — unless someone has been difficult. It should have unions on both the inlet and outlet, if it has both, or at least the inlet if that's all it has. If someone plumberd a radiator in without them, they were boing unkind…
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England1 -
Sharkbites are only good " In a Fix "
There was an error rendering this rich post.
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In anyone using sharkbites, I have trouble gerting a fitting over 1 inch pex. The outside is smooth.
I tried faucet grease.
Does the pex have to be perfectly straight? This one has a very slight curve.
How important are the SB siffeners, the inside plastic collars?
Home owner near Minneapolis with cast iron radiators, one non working slant fin now ripped out, and hot water heat.0 -
if it was coiled Pex, that tends to have a bit of an oval shape to it. So much harder to get the fitting on. Are you chamfering the outside of the tube, a sharp edge doesn't slip in easily easily and can damage the o-ring
Do you have a 1" copper fitting? Does it slide over the tube?
Outside diameter of the Pex should take that fitting. Unless you have a metric sized tube?
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream0 -
I deburred but not chamfered. Oval shape, huh?
Live and learn.
Home owner near Minneapolis with cast iron radiators, one non working slant fin now ripped out, and hot water heat.0
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