pex tubing diferent fittings tested

[wolfkiller]

I made three closed loops out of 3/4" and 1/2" with tees couplers and end caps. I filled each with water and caped it off. The three diferent types of fittings I used were shark bite, zurn pex , and rehau. Each loop had 6 fittings. 2 tees, 2 couplers and 2 end caps. I then threw all 3 outside.(It is about -20). The next day I inspected.Three of the shark bite fitings were pushed off the tubing and one tee was cracked. The pex had one cracked tee the rest of the swells were in the tubing it did not ever fail. The rehau fittings had no problems only the tubing swelled and after thawing was still water tight.
I am going to try it again to see if the results are the same.
BTW all tubing was red H2O barrior.
Will post pics next time as well.

 

[jklingel]

Glad someone is doing a little testing. Keep us posted. j

 

[Plumbit]

There are different types of pex if there is any chance of freezing I feel the Rehau (formely Wirsbo) is the best. the difference is how they are made PEX A vs. PEX B
Rehau is made chemically, peroxide is mixed in the molten Polyethylene during manufacture then extruded as pipe, (making a more scrambled Pex) the other Pex is bombarded with electrons as it comes out of the extruded as pipe ( it may not scramble the molecule's as deeply as needed to swell as evenly as the other. The Rehau Pex and ring is expanded to insert the fitting and then spends the rest of its forever life trying to go back to its original state, the others use crimped ring to hold the fitting in. I use both in my work depending on the situation I find that the crimp rings are faster to work with but may not be as good in a freeze up, so the expanding pipe and ring is my choice for a possible freezing situation