Pex Flair-It

[azflycaster]

This weekend I corrected a plumbing mistake that was made when my trailer was replumbed by the PO. The city water line was connected to the hot water line by mistake. Since I camp and use water from the tank it was not a big deal. If I was on city water the hot and cold would be reversed. My trailer is plumbed with Pex with Flair-It fittings. These things are extreamly difficult to get apart. The fitting I thought I would just pull apart, I had to cut out. BTW, a PVC pipe cutter works great for this. Even with heat from my wife's hair dryer drier did not help get them apart. Soaking in hot water worked well, but that was not on option while I was crawled under the bathroom sink. The picture shows the finished (and tested) pipes. The splice on the right had a T originally and the T to the city water was added. The new pieces were ordered from http://www.pexconnection.com , they have a great selection!

[flyfshr]

Glad to hear you got this done. Shouldn't have been too much trouble unless you're not a contorsionist (sp)

Brad
FF

[eljay]

These things are extreamly difficult to get apart.

I guess under "usual" circumstances that would be a good thing, eh? I'm considering Pex for that reason.

[Darol Ingalls]

An easier way to remove the tubing from the barbed fitting is to unscrew the nut and slide it up the tube, heat the end of the tubing with hair dryer, then cut the tubing lengthwise from the end of the tube to just past the barb with a very sharp, pointy knife. Be very careful not to score the barb or it will leak. This means you will probably have to replace the tube since it will be too short, but re-using original tube, once it has been stretched by the fitting, will cause a future leak. When assembling PEX, I always use heat and a dab of vasilene on the barb and the threads.