Product Choices When It Comes Time to Repipe your Home or Business

We Recommend Zurn Pex!

- Best warranty on the market! 25 years, transferable vs CPVC’s 10 Year Limited, none transferable warranty.

- Pex is flexible and will expand and contract allowing for less drywall repair and it holds up great in the heat in the attic of the Florida sun.

- Also in the last several years it has come to our attention on a regular basis that the CPVC is becoming very brittle. This is also come to the attention of the manufacture that has now lowered their warranty for a 50 year to now only a 10 year limited warranty. (none transferable)

While we are strive to accommodate our customers wants and will repipe in the CPVC if requested but we strongly recommend the use of Zurn Pex Piping and Fittings.

 

 Download Zurn Pex 25 Year Transferable Warranty here

 Download CPVC 10 Year Limited Warranty here

 

What if I have Polybutylene Pipe (poly)?

We at Emerald Plumbing would like to help educate our customers and possible future customers on Polybutylene Pipe (poly)

Poly is a gray pipe with crimp fittings which are usually copper or brass,originally plastic fittings were used. It was these plastic fittings which lead to poly being taken off the market in 1995. There were several class action law suits due to these plastic fittings failing and splitting hence flooding. How ever back in the 90's we were not seeing any problems with the pipe itself. However several years ago we started to see problems with the pipe itself splitting and flooding. The high chlorine content in our water in the metro Orlando area is drying the product out and forcing it to split. Poly was designed as a flexible pipe, rather than using fittings for every change of direction or offset the pipe would be bend, it is typically were we see the failure occur as the pipe is strained at this point creating a weak spot. The alarming thing here is upon splitting it floods quickly as full pressure pumps water through your home or business unlike a pin hole leak on copper which does minimum damage in comparison.

I would like to add we currently see several of these floods weekly. Most insurance companies will not insure Polybutylene Pipe due to the amount of damage which occurs from a failure. Currently this issue arises when a home owner is selling, buying or changing insurance companies. I am frequently told by a frustrated home owner selling his home who has to deal with repiping the house before it can be sold that they have never had a problem with the Poly and my reply is simply but when you do you will not all about it as your home will be destroyed and I personally see this a couple of tomes a week on an average.

We at Emerald Plumbing encourage our customers to use preventive maintenance and replace/repipe your home or business if you have Polybutylene Pipe to avoid a plumbing disaster.

Why NOT to use CPVC Pipe.

I am constantly asked about product choice when it comes to repiping and have very strong convictions. I have never liked CPVC when it came to repiping for several reasons:

(1) It is a rigid pipe which requires a lot of drywall to be cut.
(2) It does not expand and contract in the heat of the attic which can be 160 degrees and up, this makes it a very noisy. We have found even with added strapping and shock arresters it still is noisy.
(3) It has glued fitting and we have had to go on a lot of calls over the years were a bad joint was the cause of a leak, dust particles, insulation had made its way into the glue in the attic.

However, what really concerns us today is in fact the product is going brittle. After approximately 10 years we are finding CPVC to be extremely brittle. The chlorine in our city water supply is drying out the product from the inside out. We also find it does not do well with heat weather on the hot side or in the attic.

The manufacturers Rep admitted to me 5 years ago that it was in essence going brittle, they have since dropped the warranty to a 10 year limited warranty which is nontransferable and does not cover damages created from a failure but only the cost of the repair.

So alarmed are we that I won't allow any of our techs to work on any home or building with CPVC without shutting off the water entirely. No matter what the repair. We had a couple of floods which were no fault of ours due to the product breaking while we simply were shutting off an angle stop.

It is my belief that CPVC will be in a major class action law suit in the next couple years.

Now the real kicker is that Tower Hill insurance is insisting that there clients use CPVC. I have sent a dozen or more emails to Tower Hill pleading with them to simply employ some one for one day to research, talk to our plumbers who deal with this on a daily basis. As of today I have had no reply.

I encourage you, the customer, to research and make the right choice when the time comes to repiping your home or business.

I hope I have answered some questions you may have as I know this is a very important choice and as we all know the insurance companies have no problem moving the goal posts when it's to their benefit.

Your sincerely,

Liam Cuddy, Owner & President of Emerald Plumbing.

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