Is this new Plumbing PTC connection BETTER than a Sharkbite?

on the build show today we're gonna take a look at what's new and the push to connect world of plumbing fittings now most of the time people kind of refer to this name as the Kleenex brand but in fact the guys at sharkbite have several competitors in their style and I've got two systems that have been new on the market since the last time I made a video about these guys today's video is sponsored by the legend valve let's get going alright guys so last time we made this video I was checking out shark bites to kind of see what I thought about them would I use them on a house but on today's video we're gonna kind of range out a little bit and see what else is available in the push to connect or PTC world I think this is really the future of our business when it comes to plumbing and home building because we've got this aging population of plumbers and all the tools all the things that's required to do more traditional fittings whether it's a hot method like a sweat on copper or whether it's your traditional pecs where you've got some kind of crimp fitting there's more tools there's more things push-to-connect super-easy check this out this is why people get jazzed about sharkbite all you do is literally push it on the pipe and you're done now sharkbite the originator in this category and the Kleenex brand as I said a lot of things going for this connection you can basically use just about any pipe style copper pipes pecs pert CPVC almost all those kind of flavors and varieties will work with these brass sharp bite connectors they also have this going for them which is interesting I'm not sure how I feel about it necessarily but you can actually remove their fittings as well can't there we go it took me a second but we can remove their fittings and reuse them now that's really nice if you're doing remodeling but what I necessarily want that if I'm plumbing a new house I don't know all right so now let's talk about their competitors out there sharkbite has spurred on several competitors like these guys plumb bite not a very original name and I split these apart the sharkbite original the plumb bite oh and I forgot to mention nipkow push as well because I was curious what are the internal workings of these look like are they similar no we cut the sharkbite open we've done this before kind of knew what to expect basically what you've got is some stainless steel teeth in there that when you push your pipe on they're kind of one-way teeth that actually kind of grab on your pipe down here and are holding that pipe in and then you've got this EPDM ring this is basically a little gasket that's gas in hang on to the outside of your pipe now most of these sharp bite connectors you're going to see have this little insert in here this is a plastic stiffener so that if you're using PEX pipe this is going to go in the inside of your pecs and make sure the wall is nice and stiff because this is your waterproof room right here is this one EP DM gasket now if you look at the competitors that we split open plumb bite is basically the same process and even the parts look basically the same as shark bite and nib Co as well pretty similar now I will tell you there's a little bit of a fit and finish difference I must say in in the several shark bites I've caught up in all the over the years they're pretty well engineered a machine they're very impressive product the plumb bite you can even tell from the outside that it's not quite as well-made this brass fixture is not very well cleaned up things aren't just quite as nice now I'm not saying that there's a problem with them but they don't look quite as nice and I actually don't have the prices for these because we bought these at several supply houses including ones where we didn't have accounts so it's really hard to say what these are but these fittings can be as much as twenty or even thirty dollars for a specially fitted or more so these are not inexpensive now the nipkow I got to say for what I was assuming was a knockoff from the sharkbite it's a nice-looking fitting now in the nipkow they don't include the stiffener inside this little fitting here they give you a separate package so if you're using copper for instance you don't want that inner stiffener in there you can pull that out the coppers plenty stiff so up the three I got to say I was most impressed with shark bite in nipkow but let's see what's new now legend valve these are the guys that sponsored my video I'm impressed with them saying hey we're gonna send you a bunch of samples see what you think and make a video about it they didn't tell me what to talk about or what not to talk about and when I first saw it you can tell right away that this is a slightly different fixture it's kind of runs opposite of the shark bite the shark bite grabs on the outside of the tube the EPDM gasket is on the outside of the tube this one the other hand the EPM gasket there's a stiffener from the factory and in fact these are only made for pecks or perc pipe so the stiffener is on the center here and then there's not just one gasket but there's two gaskets now when I cut these open I got to say I was I was shocked to see - it was in their literature but I didn't see it when I was reading the literature it's kind of a small footnote but honestly I think this is a big separator between these legend valve and all the other competitors that I've seen so far - EPDM gaskets I also like the fact that you've got a stiffener that's the real deal some of them are brass some of them are this looks like glass fiberglass reinforced polymer I'm not sure what this is but very very thick you can see on this cross-section here some Sears polymer and both the polymer version and the brass version have dual EPDM o-rings that's pretty awesome okay now a couple other things about this when you put your pipe and this is one of their pipes by the way this is their hyper pure pipe which is a pert pipe not a PEX pipe when you pop this in did you hear that snap I don't know if you could hear that on my mic here but what's happening is there's a clamp ring a metal clamp ring which is here's the cut version of it right here that kind of looks like this it's kind of pre-charged and there's a there's a kind of like a wedge in there that when you push your pipe in the pipe moves that wedge out of the way and that's that steel clamp goes back to the way it wants to be and that's clamped around the ring and when it's closed it's basically clamping around the outside of your pecs orpurt pipe and that EPDM gasket is in the center and is getting clamped down on top of that double ring gasket so I got to say this is an impressive system I like this this feels like a kind of easier less veld version of doing one of these which is a more traditional pecs clamping system whether it's viga or one of these other ones but these these fixtures from legend they look expensive I actually don't know the cost of these you're gonna have to go find out for yourself what they cost but they look very high quality very well made and I like that there have an active click now you cannot remove these again there's no tool like there is on a sharkbite this is a permit installation so once you click it in you're done the other nice thing about the click is we don't need to mark the pipe depth and when we're using a sharkbite or one of these other competitors we actually need to mark the depth of the insert so we know that that pipe is actually all the way in because there's no tell-tale sign there's no click there's no noise nothing to know later so if I was just to walk up to this fixture when it was done I can't tell just by a visual inspection knowing that it's clamped correctly on the other hand these have an audible click and then if you look really closely in there you'll see that that red wedge has been broken off and is loose meaning the clamp is on it's clamped position and it won't happen until that pipe is fully inserted so that's kind of a cool system now sharkbite I've seen this advertised a bunch in builder magazine they have a newer system called Evo packs and this seems to be marketed towards new home construction and this one is similar to the legend valve in that this is only a pecs orpurt fitting now on all the Evo pecs fittings that I've seen they're fairly lightweight I would say and I wanted to cut it in half to see if it was any different than a sharkbite on the inside in fact it's a little bit similar to a sharkbite but it's more similar to the legend valve in this case you've got a hard plastic again it looks like a fiberglass reinforced polymer although slightly thinner walled maybe the legend valve and again you've got an e PDM ring on the outside that it's clamping down on to but the difference here is we've got one EPDM ring compared to two so it is kind of similar to an original sharkbite now the other thing about these is these are non removable these actually have a green ring a green indicator you can see let's see if I can snap one on here let's actually snap it on this pipe right here let's see if you can hear it nope you can't hear it there's nothing to click but you can see that green indicator ring hopefully you can zoom that on the camera there and see that now when that green indicator ring is showing it means that pipe is fully inserted because basically you've slid it far enough out to see it and again it's got some stainless steel teeth in there that are holding it on and some kind of a clamp on the outside it doesn't seem quite as secure as the legend valve but I do like that you can tell that it's actually been clamped on whereas the other ones you can't the traditional shark bites you can't and again this is a permanent connection non-removable alright guys I think that's it on the wrap-up if you're gonna be at the international builder show and you're interested in seeing more about this this smart click system from legend valve this is brand new they're just unveiling it they're gonna have a bunch of samples at IBS they're in booth su-34 30 and so you can see those and while you're there check out this pipe too I don't I didn't learn a ton about it yet but this is their pert type that they're calling hyper pure I need to learn a little bit more about this but this is an interesting pipe that appears to have some advantages over a traditional PEX pipe and they even have a hundred year warranty on it so I'm intrigued I need to learn a little bit more about this anyways big thanks to legend valve for supporting today's video comment below if you would trust one of these in your new home build I'm curious I've not plumbed a house with any push-to-connect yet I've only used them for kind of emergency plumbing but I can see the day coming that maybe I would and I can tell you that I know a lot of the national home builders are going to these PTC connection systems for new builds across the country thanks for joining me on this deep dive to what's new in the push to connect systems I'm not a plumber but I certainly nerd it out about this hit that subscribe button if you're not currently a subscriber we've got new content here every Tuesday and every Friday follow us on Twitter Instagram otherwise we'll see you next time on the build show [Music]

Channel: Matt Risinger

Views: 1,305,445

Keywords: sharkbite, legend valve, best push to connect, plumbing, smart click, nibco, ptc connections, pex fittings, plumbing pipes, PEX pipe, Best Push to Connect, PTC fittings, plumbing my house, how to plumb

Id: gHzec-Ets2A

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/dw_calif]

Am not a great plumber. Am residential and rarely due commercial. That is where real plumbers are. My calling is residential and pipe repair. Even so I do not like Pex pipe or the push fittings for copper and only use them to temporarily cap off a water line during remodel or repair. I avoid the temptation but did run an illegal exposed Pex line with crimp fittings on an exterior wall knowing rats would not chew the pipe. Being pressed to use Pex on a job but will use crimps.

Push fittings? Had a conversation with a master plumber that also does not trust push fittings. He said they should be exposed or accessible.

The brass crimp fittings for Pex have a much smaller inside diameter. I wanted 3/4" inside diameter to guarantee flow yet the crimp fittings reduced the I.D. so much so I looked at 1" brass crimp fittings and the I.D. looked way less than 3/4" so ran 3/4" copper.

I think a DYI home owner needing to do his own work would use push fittings. I would use few as possible and make them accessible. Any leak or pipe damage is very easy to repair even if some wall had to be removed.

[u/angloamerikan]

Me and plumbing have been in a lifelong struggle. Always seem to have trouble getting water tight fittings especially using that white pipe tape. I used the old fashioned hemp string the other day that seemed to work well.

One of the best investments I bought was a pipe crimping tool for the Pex pipe which cost $220 but has saved a lot of time and plumbing bills. A burst pipe in the evening can quickly be sealed off by crimping in a plug fitting. The piping in my house is now close to forty years old and is starting to fail especially around the fittings. I did a repair the other day and as soon as I turned the water back on another fitting blew out gushing water everywhere inside a wall. I probably turned the water back on too fast and shocked the system.

I went on holiday to Australia for a week and came back to a leak under the front lawn which consumed $400 worth of water. Luckily the water company forgave the bill. Another time a pipe burst inside a wall and I noticed it blew through the pipe where the original installers had kinked it many years ago.

One thing I have been meaning to ask you guys is what do you think of putting a small saw blade on an angle grinder? It seems to work really well and the blade is rated for 11,000 rpm. Seems really dangerous though. There are even blades that have what looks like a chain saw type cutter used for carving. I did see a blade on YouTube that only had three circular saw teeth that looked like a better option as was apparently safer. Haven't seen it for sale though. I guess use the saw if you have to but with extreme caution.