Quote:
Originally Posted by ishoot308
For you plumbers out there, does pex resist freezing better than copper??
Dan
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No plumber, but we had a customer a few years back that left for a month and realized while on vacation that she should not have turned the house heating system off (hot air). She was thinking that by turning off the furnace that she was saving and the protect of water leaking was handled by turning the main water line off at the well inlet.
Anyway, she called frantic for us to go over to the house (full finished 3 story house, everyday style) and check the pipes to make sure no issues. Walked in to a house that was more frozen than I have ever seen a house, every trap blown out, toilets cracked, a complete mess. Let me tell you what made me a believer in pex was that house. All the feed lines that were frozen solid did not even drip as we brought the house up to temperature and repaired the other issues. The pex seemed to take the expansion and relieved the fittings and fixtures.
Two things that you need to remember when dealing with frozen pipes and that if handled differently could have caused a different outcome in the house above.
1. We worked in that house all day, while the heat was running and we did not open the main water line (pressurizing the system) until the house had maintained temp for a few hours.
2. All areas that do not get good heat (cabinets, floors, etc) had a small ceramic heater and a fan moving warm air around them.
In my experience with blown out pipes, it is typically the pressure of the water behind the blockage that causes the most damage and weakens the pipe causing it to burst. The second common issue is applying direct heat (torch) to a frozen line (typically heating loop lines) that create other issues during warm up. If at all possible, smooth and steady warming is best.
So in my non-plumber opinion Dan, Pex is far better than copper at dealing with freeze issues. Just remember, even in the most simple pex installs, there are copper or brass fittings somewhere and those are what you want to pay attention to as they constrict the inside diameter and are flash freeze points being metal.