missing crimp ring?

[John Arnold]

My excuse for what is probably a stupid question: I almost never see pex. Maybe once a year at most. I do very little new construction.

Anyway, my question is, isn't there supposed to be a crimp ring at the bottom of that red line?

[David J. Smith]

No it is not missing because the crimp ring you see on the blue line is to connect the valve to the pipe, the red and blue pipes are held in place by the adapters to the copper pipes.

David

[Dom D'Agostino]

That's a Shark Bite (or similar) fitting, no crimp ring needed.

Read about it here:

Shark Bite info (http://www.cashacme.com/prod_sharkbite_pushfit.php)

[John Arnold]

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

[Jon Randolph]

My brother-in-law (a licensed plumber) says that those shark bite fittings will put plumbers out of business. He wasn't serious of course, but they can be used to connect almost anything to almost everything else.


Regarding the pic, I would have liked to see more pex exposed between the valve and the sharkbite to ensure that the pex was inserted fully into the fitting, but if it is not leaking, nothing can really be said.

[Joshua Hardesty]

As expensive as those things are... I think us plumbers will be okay for a while. :D


The fittings that frighen me are those cheap plastic fittings you find with the big compression joints. Any time I've seen them they've been leaking. Haven't yet had a problem with a sharkbite, but still I don't ever use them inside walls.


There's also another fitting, it's an angle stop, with a similar connection as a sharkbite. However, it's also got an integral supply line built into it. The thing is, instead of using the removal tool like you would with the sharkbite, with this fitting you twist it to the right 90* and it pops off. My first thoughts were, "Well, what if the supplyline is a bit too long, causing binding, which then pushes the valve to the right?"


Can't wait to see what happens if these get sold a lot.