not-a-plumber
Member
My son and I need to repipe his 1963 ranch home. The original copper piping has been disconnected and abandoned in place and someone did a poor replacement PEX job years ago with brass fittings, no supports and PEX just laying on the crawlspace floor. In the 2 years that he has lived there we have had four fittings fail, three of them were brass tees - 3/4-1/2-3/4 and each time the 1/2 connection failed. He is on a well, the ph is normal and there is no chlorine in the water, so I don't know why the original copper failed and I don't know why the brass PEX fittings are failing (probably dezincification) but not being supported can't help.
We are going to try to remove the original copper piping to make paths for the new system. I have decided that we will use PEX A with Boshart SS insert fittings and Zurn QickCap copper crimp rings. I feel that the flexibility of PEX A and the self-positioning of the QickCap rings will give us an advantage since neither of us are plumbers.
For the repairs, I borrowed my brother's crimp tool and I am not too happy with the final crimp. Especially the 3/4" tool seems to result in a slightly oval crimp. The go gauge fits over the crimp, but the no-go sometimes tests fine, but if I test again 90 deg from the first test, it may almost go over the ring. Maybe the tool is over crimping and should be re-calibrated, but I'm more concerned that the crimp is not round.
All that brings me to my question. What PEX crimping tool would you recommend? Which crimping tool do you usually grab when installing PEX copper crimp rings?
Thanks
We are going to try to remove the original copper piping to make paths for the new system. I have decided that we will use PEX A with Boshart SS insert fittings and Zurn QickCap copper crimp rings. I feel that the flexibility of PEX A and the self-positioning of the QickCap rings will give us an advantage since neither of us are plumbers.
For the repairs, I borrowed my brother's crimp tool and I am not too happy with the final crimp. Especially the 3/4" tool seems to result in a slightly oval crimp. The go gauge fits over the crimp, but the no-go sometimes tests fine, but if I test again 90 deg from the first test, it may almost go over the ring. Maybe the tool is over crimping and should be re-calibrated, but I'm more concerned that the crimp is not round.
All that brings me to my question. What PEX crimping tool would you recommend? Which crimping tool do you usually grab when installing PEX copper crimp rings?
Thanks
