What is the best material for building plumbing?
I'm upgrading all plumbing lines. Which material do you say is the best to use for residential plumbing? Copper, PEX, others?
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You will often see Pex tubing in most new home construction nowadays since it is so much faster and cheaper to install than copper piping. The main speed advantage with installing pex tubing comes from the fact that it is flexible, so you can bend it rather than need to create an angle junction as you would with copper. There is a specific brand of pex tubing called Propex from Uponor (who partnered with Milwaukee to develop a specific tool for it) that is even quicker to install that standard pex. See it in action in the video on this page, it’s a game changer for plumbing –
Propex installed with a Milwaukee expander tool is faster and easier than standard Pex
Some plumbers don’t like using Pex as they see it as being less durable, but that really has to do with the quality of the installation rather than the materials. Pex can be punctured by a poorly driven screw or nail where copper would not, but our advice would be just don’t put screws and nails in it.
Thanks! If the time to install was not an inssue, would you still prefer PEX over copper? How about water noise, which one is quieter? Water quality/freshness. Durability etc.
Hi there Babak,
I think the choice between a plastic material and copper is a very personal one, they both have advantages and disadvantages - such as the solder used, the amount of copper released into the water depending on the ph, likewise for leaching of potential toxins from the PEX - etc etc.
On the sound aspect, I would say that carefully installed PEX should be quieter as there will be fewer sharp bends, but then in hot water circuits I have heard installations that "crackle" with PEX and "bang" with copper - so again - careful installation is probably key!
Durability, probably won by copper - as long as it's all above grade or well protected...
Personally, I've used both, but would probably install PEX next time for ease of install, speed and cost.
Hope that helps!