Thread: CTSX Piping

Ever heard of it? I have not seen this being used as water supply piping on a water heater or anything else. It was the correct diameter, but i dont know abou tthe heat rating etc. Thoughts?

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notice the hometeam card i found. guess they just had them inspect it a month ago

Originally Posted by Jerome W. Young

Ever heard of it? I have not seen this being used as water supply piping on a water heater or anything else. It was the correct diameter, but i dont know abou tthe heat rating etc. Thoughts?

Jerome,

That looks like polybutylene in the photo.

Dom.

It may be. I just copied what was stamped on it. CTSX? I did not see reference to PEX anywhere.

I agree with Dom, looks like polybutylene. Definitely not PEX, you need to call that stuff out and inform your client (unless you want to pay for the re-piping when it fails)
Look it up, PB has had recall(s) and a high failure rate.

Agreed. I will.

That is a gold mine find! That is the old Quest PB pipe and the infamous plastic fittings! Depending on what the Home Team reported they might have screwed-up. Anyway, just report what you have found and that it will leak/fail given enough time. The plastic fittings are more of an issue than the pipe, but depending on the chemicals in the water supply the pipe is just as problematic.

Scott,

Those are the 'new and improved' plastic fittings - those are the compression type. Of course, though, it is not installed properly in that photo.

Attached is a photo of the original crimp type Acetal plastic fittings. First these were used with aluminum crimp rings (Gosh, you mean aluminum failed to hold tight? Now who woulda thought of that? ). Then, as an improvement when the aluminum crimp rings began failing, they used copper crimp rings. Of course, when the aluminum rings were replaced, the weak link (the aluminum crimp rings) was gone and the Acetal plastic fittings became the failure point. So they went to copper fittings and crimp rings. Now, though, with copper fittings, the copper crimp rings became the failure point, so out came the compression fittings.

Of course, though, by that time no one wanted 'that crap', and about that time failures in the piping itself were appearing. I understand that the piping failures were limited, versus the fitting failures. By that time though, it didn't really matter what failed - it had already made its own history.

Yep, thanks for pointing that out.

I've been reading everybodys posts for several months. They are usually pretty good. However, everytime I sign on I get the "you have not posted a response, why not do it today". OK, here goes...

Sure looks like good old polybutylene to me. We "drown" in that stuff here in Tucson. If you would like information on the class action law suit (about a Billion dollars) visit "pbpipe.com". The attornys seem to change the rules frequently so I add that web site to my report so the client can check for themselves.

I also noticed that there was not a visible bond wire at the screw to the electric access panel on the top of the tank. Most of the "good guys" bring the bond wire to the outside of the panel and then attach it for easy recognition. If I don't see it there, then I will open the panel. Amazing how many of them are not attached.

Happy New Year

Tommy