Pex In Marine Use.

[DeepFrz]

$10.09 CA at Home Depot for the Sharkbite 12" water heater connector. Not bad for a good safe connection. Surely cheaper in the US.

[motion30]

I was refering to the reinforced vinyl hose, I realize the pex is

[sailorchic34]

For faucet and heater connections on a boat, the sharkbite fittings are nice. Think they were about $5-$6 each last time I looked. The crimp on fittings tend to reduce the inside diameter more. This causes increased velocity and higher pressure drops. Oh they work fine too and are cheaper. But for faucet connections having a close to full bore will give better flow performance.

You can get the sharkbite fittings in CALI. Not code approved though mainly due to plumbing unions. Lucky the building codes don't apply to boats.

[AnchorageGuy]

Thanks Sara for noting our blog post on the installation we did of the Pex system. Not only was the install easy but we are very pleased with the new system. Working for a major boat dealer and seeing the new boats come in with the Pex system installed helped me make my decision. I have yet to hear anything negative from anyone with the Pex system on board. Chuck

[Khagan1227]

Originally Posted by dandrews

Pex is. Used in households everywhere now. I have been told the Sharkbite fittings are not legal in Calif or Vermont. Not sure but that is what my local supply house tells me. Oh by the way, Sharkbite fittings are pretty expensive. Unless you are doing a pretty small job, use the compression fittings with the go-nogo test tool. Will save you a lot of money.

Don

I've use PEX extensively in both of my stick houses, but getting the compression tool in some of the tight places on any boat looks like a challenge. You should try it under the lazarrete in a smaller boat, while on your back with your legs in the air...

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by motion30

I was refering to the reinforced vinyl hose, I realize the pex is

While its not building code approved it is FDA approved for drinking water. So its fine for boats, RV's etc. Its a PVC based plastic so its safe enough.

Its also used for handicap shower hose and some of the kitchen pull out nozzles...

[rubyjean]

I have been using pex for several years now. The best thing about it is that there is no Vinyl taste. Safe for hot water, red or blue is the same except for the color, although I only use the white. I recommend using the copper crimps, or buy the stainless ones..Michael..

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by Bash

The only problems I've ever had are where the system needs to lead into metal fittings. For example, the lines that lead into your water heater. Going from PEX to 1/2" pipe fittings is going to be the weak spot.

I go from a PEX male adapter to SS braided hose into the water heater. Works great and for winterizing I just remove the cold and hot and place a 3" nipple between the two hoses. Bypass in about 30 seconds with no mess of extra valves..

PEX is great for boat plumbing though I tend to use 3/8" more than 1/2" for ease of routing.

[colemj]

Our boat came out of the factory over 14 years ago completely plumbed with PEX and Qest compression fittings. No problems since then. Adding new runs or making changes is very easy and can be done by hand with the compression fittings.

I find that the PEX has never had any growth in it while the few small runs of reinforced vinyl I have added over the years need to be cleaned or replaced every few years because of growth in them. I slowly replace these runs with PEX now when it is time for cleaning.

Mark

[St. Elsewhere]

Here is a pex supplier on the internet: PEX - Radiant Heat - Radiant Heating - Plumbing Supplies - PexSupply.com

I have a 14 year old Webasto hydronic heating system that is plumbed with the heating pex products. It has performed perfectly. Never a leak. I did experience some leaks on a previous boat that used hoses and hose clamps.

[rtbates]

I just plumb our new shower with PEX and it's outstanding stuff. 3/4" can take a very sharp bend much to my surprise it's very flexible. Just get a good HIGHER dollar crimper... It's all about the crimp and it's the last place to try to save a few bucks. When I did mine they sold crimpers from $20-80 I bought the $80 version and was more than glad I did. It's adjustable and comes with a go/no go gauge (USE THE GAGE)

[HopCar]

I really like using the quick connect fittings such as Whale and Sea Tech. They are a real time saver. If you want to change something, they're easy to remove and reuse. I sell the Sea Tech fittings in my store: Sea Tech Quick Connect Fittings

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by HopCar

I really like using the quick connect fittings such as Whale and Sea Tech. They are a real time saver. If you want to change something, they're easy to remove and reuse. I sell the Sea Tech fittings in my store: Sea Tech Quick Connect Fittings

Been using them for a long time but it the Watts packaging from my plumbing wholesaler. Watts owns Seatech and the valves and connectors are identical but I get a better price through my plumbing wholesaler than I do on my commercial account at Hamilton, Defender, Port Supply or others.

I also don't use the metric sizing as it is harder to find. Initially the push into the marine market was metric to keep you "locked in" to the SeaTech line but they've now offered them in standard US plumbing ID's/ OD's...

[Dockhead]

I have a ton of pipes on my boat, with central hydronic heating plumbed to five or six fan coils on top of hot and cold water supply.

It was all done originally in a UK system similar to pex called Speedfit. It was beautifully done by the yard and functions perfectly after 12 years of use, BUT -- I also had to change a calorifier this year, so had to do a lot of attaching, detaching, attaching pipes and some replumbing to accomodate the different configuration of the new calorifier.

The Speedfit system is not perfect -- the fittings are theoretically not reusable and can be tricky to screw back on. It is not reasonable to not reuse them because they are not cheap at all. My second complaint is that there are several competing systems like this in the UK, and they are all subtly but definitely incompatible. So it can be a lot of hassle.

I now carry about 6 meters of the pipe plus a large collection of the fittings on board, in case I ever have another situation like I did with my calorifier last spring, which is a real octopus of pipe fittings with two different coils (from central heat plus from engine), water in, water out, pressure release, etc. I got a lot of experience with the Speedfit system!

[TFrere]

Has anyone used PEX for their propane lines in their boat? Is this up to code or do I need to keep the copper tubing for the propane system?