Partial water line replacement

[markjhansen]

I have an older seasonal MH (1984) near Upper Michigan.
Last year was the first time that i winterized a MH.
I just blew out the waterlines and that was I did.
Going forward I will also fill the lines with RV antifreeze to keep the pipes from rusting.
I have a well and there is a lot of iron in the water, when I turned on the water this spring there was a alot of rust from the pipes cloging a section going to the back bathroom.(cold water only)
I checked the cold water lines going to the sink and toilet and there is no water getting to them, actually very little water,The toilet will fill up in a couple of days.
I asked a mobile home repair that was doing some work for me about this,he looked and said that the pipe is clogged and should be replaced.It would cost a few hundred dollars.
Eventually I will replace all of the waterlines but cannot afford it now.
I want to do this immediate repair myself and I will use PEX, here is my question.
Is it O.K to run pex onto the galvinized pipes from the water intake and PEX to the copper fittings under the sink and toilet?
I will do both hot and cold lines as long as I have the belly open.
Eventualy I will replace all water lines with pex.
Is it O.K. to replace all of the lines with PEX without putting in an manifold, just replace it the way it is set up now?
I have to do this project one step at a time and my Mobile home repair book is in the cabinet 200 miles from me at the MH.
Your help is apreciated and I look foreard to your responce.

[Steve-WA]

Yep - check the hardware store for the transition fittings you need, also consider "sharkbite" or "gatorbite" fittings, use the white sleeve inserts with those. Also, consider pex supply. com they have everything there

[ponch37300]

What are your current water lines? You said galvanized intake and copper fittings under the sink but I didn't catch what the lines are. But in short answer, yes you can use PEX and tie into the supply and copper fittings. They make all sorts of adapters for PEX that have threads or ones you can solder to copper and crimp the PEX to.

I really like PEX since the first time I used it about 10 years ago. I was helping a buddy finish his basement in a brand new house that they had used PEX for plumbing. At first I didn't like it because I had never used it and didn't have the tools for it, I was used to soldering copper pipes and fittings. I bought a good crimper, which have come WAY down in price since then and all the fittings and a couple rolls of PEX line. Once I started using the PEX it was great. It's so versatile that makes it really handy.

You can run PEX to fix what you need to now and then run more later. You can cut and splice into PEX real easy with a TEE. So fix what you need now and then fix the rest later, although if it was me I would try to do as much as possible at once since I'm already down there getting dirty and PEX is fairly cheap if you buy a bigger roll of it. The expensive part will be the various fittings and valves under sinks and the tools to crimp it. Buy a good crimper, not the cheaper bolt together or vise grip style crimpers. This is the brand I bought about ten years ago and it's been great, http://www.siouxchief.com/Tools/Accesso ... ings.B1F8F. I have the 1/2" and 3/4" combo one and it's made a perfect crimp everytime. But they make many others, just get one of this handle style because it will make the job a lot easier then this kind, http://www.amazon.com/Superior-Tool-071 ... ex+crimper.

If it was me I would try to run all the pex while under there. I would also run 3/4" for the "main" part from the supply to the bathroom, kitchen, second bathroom and then branch off with 1/2" from there. Mine is run with 1/2" everywhere and really lose pressure if you're using more then one thing at a time. So I would run two 3/4" lines(one hot and one cold) down the whole trailer next to the heat ducts. Then branch off of that for your fixtures like toilets, showers, sinks, etc. This all depends on your layout also. Cut out the old plumbing that is bad and tie the pex there. Then if budget is tight I would run the pex under the trailer and stub it out above the floor and just cap them off. This way all the under trailer work is done once you patch up any holes in the belly. Then just buy valves and braided steel lines to hook up the sinks and what not as funds allow. Around here PEX tubing is a lot cheaper to buy in bulk, for example a 100 ft roll of 1/2" is roughly 55 bucks but a 250 ft roll is about 80 bucks. So for an extra 25 bucks you get 150 more feet. So it's not that much more to buy all your tubing at once and run the tubing. You shouldn't need to many fittings to just run the lines and cap them off. So just the cost of the tool which you'll need no matter if you need to do one crimp or 100 and then some tubing and a few fittings and crimps. They also make shark bite type fittings if you don't want to buy the tool. Personally I'm not a fan. When they first came out they had some issues with leaking, from what I've read those issues are fixed and they work great. I've used them here and there for quick repairs and have had good luck with them. But 99% of the time, especially inside a wall or inside the belly of a trailer I feel a lot better with a good mechanical crimp.

Just a suggestion so you don't have to keep working under the trailer. Sorry if I was kind of rambling, think I had an extra cup of coffee this morning!

[Greg S]

One point to note is that the manufacturer of the pex fittings does not recommend using the metal fittings on a water system connected to a well. No Idea why but they make plastic pex fittings for well water systems.

[ponch37300]

One point to note is that the manufacturer of the pex fittings does not recommend using the metal fittings on a water system connected to a well. No Idea why but they make plastic pex fittings for well water systems.

That's interesting, I've never heard that before. But I've also never worked on a well system before. I'm going to have to do some reading on that because I'm interested to know why now. Thanks for sharing.

[ponch37300]

Here is one of the first articles I found on the subject, http://home-safety.knoji.com/problems-w ... -lawsuits/. Seems like it's not just well water but the quality of water and the quality of the fittings.

[Greg S]

I do not know if it on all the packaging but I do no that up here (Ontario Canada) it says on the packaging of the brass fittings that they are not to be used on systems on well water.

[Greg]

Many wells have a very high Iron content as well as lime in my area, both are not a real good mix for steel fittings.

Greg

[markjhansen]

Hello,
An update and a couple more Questions.
I was up to the MH last weekend to take a looksie.
I was suprised to find that the waterlines did not run along the outside of the MH like I thought.
From under the outside Waterheater closet and water intake, the waterlines run to the middle of the MH then down the center of the MH and elbows back towards the outside of the MH and to the fixtures.
This will make this job even harder that expected, unless I change the original route and run them along the outside. What do you think?
I plan on doing this repair over Laborday weekend.
I bought a crimping tool and am ready to to buy the Pex and pex fittings.
I see different types of crimp rings, one that has a collar on it, are they all good?
Because of the iron in the water I will use all plastic fittings and transition adapters.
Did any of you ever have any problems with plastic fittings and should I be OK doing this?
In your opinion is there a difference between the Red and Blue pex, type A,B or C pex and what would you use? what about heat tape. can I use that on Pex?
Thats it for now, I know I will have plenty more to ask yous as I go forward.
Thanks!

[Greg]

The colors are just to color code your lines, Blue, cold Red, hot.

Greg