This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3,614 for Thursday the 9th of June 2022.
Today's show is entitled, everything you always wanted to know about PX part.
It is hosted by Tre and is about 14 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is information about PX and how it is used.
Welcome back to the series, everything you always wanted to know about PX.
This is part 2, the joy of PX.
What it is and how it is used.
My name is Tre.
Welcome on this journey.
So what is PX?
According to Wikipedia, crosslinked polyethylene tubing is commonly abbreviated PX.
That's Papa Echo X-ray or XPE X-ray Papa Echo or XLPE X-ray Lima Papa Echo.
It's very confusing.
I'm putting a link to the Wikipedia article for crosslinked polyethylene in the
show notes.
We will call it PX.
This tubing is made out of crosslinked polyethylene chains.
Comes in Type A, Type B and Type C and these differ based on the process used to make
them and the resulting properties of the tubing produced.
PX is used for a variety of different products, including insulation on high voltage, high
potential electrical cables, domestic water pipes, which is what we'll be talking about
in this series, irrigation and hydroponic systems, natural gas and oil pipes, and even chemical
handling and storage systems, so it is a very versatile product.
Let's talk a little bit about its use for domestic plumbing.
The advantages of PX for domestic plumbing are wide ranging.
The first is its flexible, making it easy to install and fish through walls and crawl
spaces in getting it into areas where you might otherwise have difficulty with a long rigid
pipe.
It will stretch a little bit, making it less likely to rupture if water contained within
PX freezes.
I'm sure you've heard about or maybe even experienced a pipe bursting when it freezes.
As you may know, water when it freezes expands when it transitions from liquid to a solid.
That's why ice floats on top of water, because it's less dense than the water itself.
It expands.
Well if it expands in something like a pipe, that pressure has to go somewhere and oftentimes
it will result in the pipe bursting.
But because PX will stretch a little bit, if the water inside PX freezes it is less likely
to rupture the tubing.
It does not rust, and it does not easily corrode, we'll talk about some circumstances when
it can corrode a little bit later in this episode.
It's also much less expensive than copper.
Copper is very expensive right now, copper tubing is significantly more expensive than
would be PX if you're doing repairs in replacements or even a new install.
Most new installs in houses now use PX instead of copper.
It comes in multiple colors for easy identification.
For example, when I did my install, I used blue for cold water, red for hot water, making
it easy for me to see which was which you can also see yellow oftentimes used for gas lines,
and variety of different things like that also comes in clear.
So many different colors.
It's easy to cut.
This is a simple hand cutter to simply snip it in, it's very easy to cut.
As opposed to like a steel pipe which you might have to use a hacksaw to cut, or a copper pipe
which you'd have to use a tubing cutter and twist it around and around and around, tighten
it each time until you cut through the pipe with PX, it's much easier, just a snip
and you're ready to go.
And the connectors are easy to put on, and this is the process for that will vary depending
on the type of PX that you're using.
So let's talk about this a little bit.
PX type A is what we call expansion PX, so it is designed for expanding to go over a connector.
For example, you would take the end of the PX that you want to hook to your connector,
and you would slide a sleeve that's also made of PX, it's just a little bit larger and
diameter, over the end where the connector is going to go, so you have a double layer of
PX now, then you get the special tool that inserts into the PX and expands a specific
amount, and it'll expand and rotate, expand and rotate, expand and rotate, so it's stretching
that whole end of the tubing, then you simply slide that, expand it and over the PX A connector
and you have to use a PX A style connector with PX A tubing, and then let it shrink
back to normal size and it will create a seal. I'm including a link in the show notes showing
that process, you know, YouTube video.
The advantages of PX A are it's fast and easy to install. You can install it in tight places
since the tool does not have to be right in the tight place where your connector is.
You can have the tool in the end of the tubing out, stretch it, then put it in there quickly,
slide it onto the connector, let it shrink back up again.
So that makes it very easy to install in a lot of places where it would be more difficult
to install a different type of tubing. PX A is also more resistant to damage from kinks
if it is bent too tight or into too tight or radius. So with PX A, if it does kink, you
can straighten it back out again, warm it up with a little bit of a heat gun and we'll
return back to its normal shape and you're good to go. You don't want to overheat it
obviously, but a little bit of warmth can straighten that right out.
And it's also more resistant to damage from freezing. So we talked about that, you know,
the PX expanding, if something inside of it freezes and expands, PX A will expand more
than PX B will without rupturing. So those are the advantages of it.
The disadvantages are the tool to actually expand the end is very expensive. Most of the
times I've seen it run anywhere from 300 to 600 US dollars for the tool. Also in the
United States, PX A is generally a professional plumbers type of product. And you can get
the PX A connectors from professional plumbers and from professional plumbing supply houses,
but they're not as available in your typical hardware and home improvement store. They do
not have as much of a variety of them. That's why in my case I ended up choosing PX B and we'll
get into that in another episode. So let's talk about PX B. PX B is what we call crimp PX.
So it does not stretch to go over the end of the connector. Instead the process for putting a
connector on it is you take a metal ring or a band and you place it around the end of the
PX B tubing that you're wanting to connect to your connector. Then the tubing is and the band
are slipped over the end of the desired you know PX B connector and you have to use a PX B type
connector with PX B type tubing. Then a special tool is used to crimp that metal ring or a different
tool maybe used to tighten the metal band creating a seal between the PX and the PX connector.
Again I'm going to include a link in the show nuts showing you how PX B is is crimped onto a
connector. The advantages of PX B is it's fast and easy to install. It's a little bit slower than
PX A but it's still fast and easy to install. The crimping tools are much less expensive than the
tools for PX A and there's a higher availability and a wider range of connectors at
typical home improvement stores in the United States. The disadvantages of PX B is if PX B is
kinked that portion is no longer safe to use and it must be replaced. It is also more difficult
to get connections done in tight places because oftentimes the crimping tools require a lot of pressure
and the handles will expand and contract a significant amount almost like a bolt cutters. You
really have to swing them out wide and bring them in far to get the the ring crimped properly.
It can be difficult to do that in tight places. I ended up investing in a battery-powered
crimping tool that could really get into tighter places and made that process much
much easier. Also that can be remedied if you choose to use shark bite press on fittings
for your PX and another disadvantage is it is less resistant to damage from freezing like we
talked about earlier. All of the connections for PX A and PX B can be easily removed
if you want to reuse the connectors. So you simply cut off the ring or cut off the band or cut off
the particular section of PX that you're working on and then cut off the crimp ring
remove the PX and then reuse the connectors. As long as you don't cut in deep enough
the damage the ridges on the connectors. These are many of the advantages of using PX and we
talked about the advantages of PX A and PX B. Are there any disadvantages to using PX? Well there
are. The first is that it is damaged by ultraviolet light from sunlight or even from ultraviolet
light from LED or fluorescent lighting. You'll want to check your manufacturer specifications
to see how it is rated and what it can be exposed to. Most PX is typically rated for only
30 to 60 days of sun exposure before it begins to deteriorate. Then what happens is the PX can
become susceptible to corrosion by chlorine in water and it can become brittle and you really do
not want to use PX that has been exposed to UV light or sunlight for any length of time.
I will include two links in the show notes for some videos and information about
PX and UV light. As a result you'll want to make sure that when you do install it any
sections that are going to be exposed to light are covered so that the light is not hitting the
PX directly. The long-term durability of PX is really yet to be determined. When we think about
the fact that we've used copper pipe in houses for hundreds of years and have hundreds of years
worth of experience with what the copper will do over time and what it will work for and what
it won't work for. We just don't have that much time with PX but we're getting more and more
all the time and learning a lot and it does seem to be a much more durable replacement for
copper. Remember also that it's non-conductive so it will not make for an electrical ground. If you
have copper pipes in your house that you're using to ground certain portions of your electrical
system and then you replace a section of that copper pipe with PX between where you've made that
electrical connection and where the copper actually goes out of your house into the ground it
could create a problem. You no longer have that electrical connectivity there so be aware of that.
If you're making changes to from copper to PX you'll have to go through and make sure that you're
not putting your house at a electrical safety hazard because of the way some of your grounds may
be connected. It's also not rigid it must be supported. In fact there are rules for how often it
must be supported. You'll want to check your local plumbing codes to see how often it must be
supported over a horizontal stretch and how often it must be supported for a vertical stretch
different things like that. So make sure you look into those and take a good plan to make sure
that you support it properly because the way to the water inside it can cause it to bend. Speaking of
bending it can only bend a certain radius before it kinks. Now there are guides that you can get
that can cause that you can run it through to make sure that it does not bend any further than
it's supposed to and they help a lot or you can install little elbows if you have to make
really tight bends. You can just crimp on an elbow and go from there. PX may induce an odd taste
to your water for the first few weeks that you're using it. I noticed that in my install for the first
maybe two to three weeks every morning I would run the water for a minute to flush all the
water that had been sitting in the PX overnight out and then it was when I drank the water it
did not taste odd. After a month you could not even tell the difference in the taste. So be aware
that it can have a short term negative influence on the taste of your water. But some people say
that that taste is just the tip of the iceberg and that PX might leak toxins into your water.
I've seen articles that support that I've seen articles that refute that
to your own research. I'm including a link with each position in the show notes. If you're
going to use PX research it for yourself come to your own conclusions before you go ahead and
install it. Well we've reached the end of part two, the joy of PX. Thank you for listening and
stay tuned for part three and I wish you well. You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at
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