Failed Pex

I believe there were known issues with specific types of Uponor tubing, but I'm not positive.

As of this time, I'll continue using Uponor white type A pex without fear. I've seen no problems with it for the 20 years I've been around it.

From what I've heard about some locations and the water, copper will fail with pinholes while Pex will not.

Hi, Nothing at all was mentioned about water quality. Chlorine and chloramines can cause damage to PEX. I've been installing the non-colored stuff since the early 90s with no problems.

Yours, Larry

ps. I have seen failures with kinks, sunlight and rodents. 🙈

Foolproof reliable methods of joining pipes & tubes are probably expensive if they exist.

There have been some isolated rumors, or dare I say reports of some pex leaks. Can't tell how big or small the issue is. However, it doesn't seem like another sixty-minute story from decades ago will be warranted.

I'm wondering if the tubing was left out in the sun for a time before it was installed.

We live in a "sue first ask questions later" litigious society. Some lawyer out there will take on a case if there is money in it for them… They hope to settle out of court and make a payday.

The Poly Butylene case come to mind.

Less of an issue that it is rumored to be. Lots of disinformation.

We are having trouble with some restaurants up in the state of New Hampshire. They ran the Pex-A underground to feed the bar and hand sinks at the bar and the are leaking just above the floor. We are assuming nothing is happening in the floor at this time.

Pex and polyethylene shouldn't have any issues with ethanol even 100%.

Floor washing chemicals on the other hand……..

@kcopp I'm not sure. All i have seen is pictures that my guys have sent. Every leak they have seen is above the floor and they just cut it back but there ain't much left to cut back. Next phase will be saw cutting the floor unless they find a different way to feed the bars.

I did my first in-slab radiant floor in 1982 using Pex A or B. I don't remember which. I was a first year apprentice helping on the job. Going back all those years using various brands and types of pex tubing, I have never experienced a failure. I've had my favorites throughout the years and always kept using what I considered the winners. Rehau, Wirsbo which then became Uponor, Weil McLain's AlumiPex, Watts Radiant Pex-Al, among a few others. WM's AlumiPex is long gone, but I've used miles of the other three. It wouldn't be fair to mention my favorite.

I've seen the same type of failures in the white Uponor pipe as well. I think the colored pipe got the bad press because it's simply installed far more than the white pipe is. The red gets the worse press of all because whatever it is that aggravates Uponor pipe to premature death, heat just adds to it, and if the red pipe is also used in recirculation setups, it's now seeing another factor (total water moving through pipe) that will cause premature wear and tear. When the red pipe starts failing in year 6 (for instance), you can expect the blue to fail in year 10.

I've never seen red or blue installed only white because guys buy the 1000' spool and install it for everything.

I'm sure.

My point was I feel the white gets installed far more.

The white is probably a color that is added to the tube like red or blue. I wonder why the red and blue are the colors that are the most common failures.

If it was the color adding process that is causing the failure? According to the lawsuits.

Could be a regional thing. Most installations I've seen around here are the red/blue. Personally, I never used the color pipes because to me, it looks cheap and unprofessional. One can argue that any plastic is cheap and unprofessional, but that's a different discussion.

In any case, the expansion rings are made of the same material as the pipe itself, these are not colored red or blue, and they show the same yellowing and cracking as the colored pipe.