Hi Guys,
I'm replacing a shower and tub valve and was hoping to get some advice on which type of pipe to go with pex or copper.
I would like to get the best pressure and flow rate possible but the valve is also in a tight and awkward area to access. My initial thought, just to make life easier, was to go with 1/2" pex but after I did some research it seems the ID on 1/2" pex is smaller then that of copper. Not wanting to buy any special tools for crimping or expanding I was thinking of doing sharkbite the whole way through. I know the majority of the flow loss with pex occurs because of the crimp fittings being so much smaller so I was wondering if using the sharkbite fittings would negate much of that loss.
I could also go with copper but that will be a bit more of a pain. I have to replace the pipes down to the basement because the way they did it is terrible and I think it's part of why we have such poor flow at the tub. The hot water line goes through 6 elbows and 2 couplings in between the main line and the valve. Using copper I could knock that down to just 3 elbows and 1 coupling by re-routing the pipe. With pex I could eliminate them all together.
So I guess the question is, which would yield the best results, copper or pex with sharkbite?
I'm replacing a shower and tub valve and was hoping to get some advice on which type of pipe to go with pex or copper.
I would like to get the best pressure and flow rate possible but the valve is also in a tight and awkward area to access. My initial thought, just to make life easier, was to go with 1/2" pex but after I did some research it seems the ID on 1/2" pex is smaller then that of copper. Not wanting to buy any special tools for crimping or expanding I was thinking of doing sharkbite the whole way through. I know the majority of the flow loss with pex occurs because of the crimp fittings being so much smaller so I was wondering if using the sharkbite fittings would negate much of that loss.
I could also go with copper but that will be a bit more of a pain. I have to replace the pipes down to the basement because the way they did it is terrible and I think it's part of why we have such poor flow at the tub. The hot water line goes through 6 elbows and 2 couplings in between the main line and the valve. Using copper I could knock that down to just 3 elbows and 1 coupling by re-routing the pipe. With pex I could eliminate them all together.
So I guess the question is, which would yield the best results, copper or pex with sharkbite?