Anyone ever had to replace polybutylene pipes

Killerb · #1 06-23-2011, 04:51 AM

Hi I live in a mobile home its not a double wide one. I have recently discovered that I have poly pipes and I heard these suck. I want to have the place re piped but I don't know the cost. I was thinking ten grand. Had anyone ever had to do this with their home before. What were your experiences.

pickrel pat · #2 06-23-2011, 06:20 AM

why do they "suck"? i think they are better. if your furnace goes out in the winter and your not around, copper will split and it would be very costly to get a plumber in there to re pipe it......

Peterupnorth · #3 06-23-2011, 06:37 AM

Did my whole house with PB back in 1980. Never had a single problem. The only thing I didn't like was when adding something to the system one has to get the special tool for the compression rings. Also noticed that PB doesn't scale up inside the pipe. If it ain't broke......

FCLightning · #4 06-23-2011, 06:46 AM

As far as I know the only problem with poly-B is when it is used in a hot water heating application. Normal household tap water doesn't have trouble.

Grizzly Adams · #5 06-23-2011, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FCLightning

As far as I know the only problem with poly-B is when it is used in a hot water heating application. Normal household tap water doesn't have trouble.

X2. It's in thousands of houses, including my own. Just another thing the Media has blown out of proportion. Wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Only problem comes if you want to repair or modify the system. Pipe and fittings are no longer available, so you have to convert to Pex. Any hardware store sells the special fitting and rings.
Grizz

ksteed17 · #6 06-23-2011, 08:31 AM

Ya there won't be any difference really from polyb to pex. But you can't buy it anymore and to buy transition fittings is getting trickier. But for a single wide 10g is pretty high to just replace waterlines

Killerb · #7 06-23-2011, 08:50 AM

Ive had to do 3 repairs and I'm just scared that one of these days the leak will be somewhere I cant see. I was thinking of changing it to pex. They say polyb gets eaten away from the chlorine in the water and eventually breaks.

deanmc · #8 06-23-2011, 07:59 PM

I read the old poly piping was an issue if you are on town water. Same thing. Reaction in the poly from the Chlorine??????

I just changed them out in my house (well water) Not because of a problem with the poly but rather because I had Iron buildup causeing grief with the screens on all my appliances. Including the tools and new shutoffs for the taps I spent around $250.00.