Push fit pumbing fittings

mad DIY

Does anyone know the life expectancy of push fit plumbing fittings. Someone said to me that they rely on a rubber seal which would perish over time, and therefore may need replacing in the future. If this is the case, then is it wise to replumb a house using these joints ?

ART6

mad DIY wrote: »

Does anyone know the life expectancy of push fit plumbing fittings. Someone said to me that they rely on a rubber seal which would perish over time, and therefore may need replacing in the future. If this is the case, then is it wise to replumb a house using these joints ?

Personally, I have never used them and am extremely suspicious of them. Any house plumbing I have ever done I have used soldered copper (Yorkshire) fittings because I know they work, are easy to fit, and are a durable as the pipes themselves. I wouldn't risk the push fits for anything other than a small job, but some of the professionals on this forum might know better than I.

Joey the lips

I sold them for a living, I know of whole housing estates done on them. Use a brand name Tec Tite being the best example. I have complete faith in them. Dont use them 2 meters near a boiler or cylinder. Legistlation is 1 mtr I always double!

There is a slightly better fitting out at the moment. From a selling perspective they are techanically marvelous perhaps a plumber will give there opinion they are john gest fittings.(White- They have a thread for tightening just incase) Available many places but best know is

Heatmerchants and( Atlantic for one offs)

Lex Luthor

I used to work for a company that sold equipment for making hard drives and the water system on the machines used the Festo push fittings. We never had any problems with them and we ran the system at about 3bar.

Joey the lips

Lex Luthor wrote: »

I used to work for a company that sold equipment for making hard drives and the water system on the machines used the Festo push fittings. We never had any problems with them and we ran the system at about 3bar.

Good fitting lex but as far as I remember they only make them as industrial sizes.

Festo pneumatics supply them.

CJhaughey

Give me a good compression fitting anyday, The new Qualpex fittings have a collar that allows them to be easily removed by sliding it in, Not what you want on a plumbed joint as it is very easy to slide them back against an edge and partially release the joint.

Pete67

I always use solder fittings where possible, especially where the fitting will not be accessible later on. I've never known one leak yet as long as the joint is prepared and made properly. Although many people don't I always thoroughly clean the joints afterwards when they have cooled to remove excess flux, it is corrosive and turns into a nasty green goo if left in place.

I don't use pushfits, but I can understand the benefits in terms of time saving.

mad DIY

Thanks folks, there's no horror stories about them yet. I wonder how many professional plumbers use them at the moment. I dont know how long they have been around, not that long I suspect, if so any problems with longevity may not be actuality yet. At least, that's my worry. From some quotes I have for the replumbing, a job done with push fits looks like its a fair bit cheaper, but at the moment I'm not convinced that I won't eventually end up regretting it.

slavetothegrind

That would be a bit worrying a job quoted in pushfits
Meh.. go for a different quote, a pro won't be quoting pushfits.

I think i have seen the record for pushfits used on a small handbasin! have a photy somewheres will find and post here for the laugh!

Joey the lips

Mad to be honest I think there good but if I was put to the test I would agree myself that compression or solder has a better success rate. especially in hard to reach places. Push fits are great for DIY jobs like garden taps but I still use a gate valve before them so I dont really worry

But like I said I have seen who housing estates use them

jack of all

I'm not a plumber but I've done plenty of plumbing in my own house and the odd small nixer. I always use compression fittings or yorkshire capillary fittings; they are quick as I need them to be, strong and don't give trouble. I've seen pushfit fittings used on plenty of new build houses and apartments but I think any experienced plumber would probably opt for compression fittings on his own house. I don't think perishing seals is an issue though- this will generally only happen if the seal is exposed to direct sunlight i'd imagine...

Kashkai

The "Plumber" who did the heating system on my house used push fits and they all fecking failed within 18 months of installation, including 2 that were under the concrete floor which entailed taking up the ruined wooden floorboards and digging up the floor to get at the leaking joints. Another push fit was used in the hotpress about 80cm from the cylinder and it was literally spewing water out for a while until I noticed it (the water was following the fall of the pipe down into the sub floor so I didn't see a damp patch until the damage was done.

I have a pressurised system with a water pump so perhaps this places too much pressure on the push fits but given the choice, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Go for compression fittings as they don't fail in my experience in other houses.

meathmannn

I use push fits all the time, great bit of kit. They dont like to be put under sideways pressure, I.e. dont try bending the pipe too much around obstacles if there's a push fit on it.

Re-did most of the house last year with them, no issues, and you can re-use them if you need to re-configure things. No more over tightened fittings or scraping knuckles with awkward spanners.

Joey the lips

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

The "Plumber" who did the heating system on my house used push fits and they all fecking failed within 18 months of installation, including 2 that were under the concrete floor which entailed taking up the ruined wooden floorboards and digging up the floor to get at the leaking joints. Another push fit was used in the hotpress about 80cm from the cylinder and it was literally spewing water out for a while until I noticed it (the water was following the fall of the pipe down into the sub floor so I didn't see a damp patch until the damage was done.

I have a pressurised system with a water pump so perhaps this places too much pressure on the push fits but given the choice, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Go for compression fittings as they don't fail in my experience in other houses.

Heard that dave it happened with the National Brass( All brass fitting inc push bit) and sanbra fyffe fittings( brass and blue push fit). The only tried and tested ones are tec tite(brass and green). Did you sue for failure? If they failed your entitled as they should have been tested to BS Standards before being released on the irish market.

Lex Luthor

afaik, push fits are very common in the US

The Festo ones I used came in Imperial & Metric sizes. We used metric but they were very reliable. I wouldn't fancy having to buy them out of my own pocket though

gsxr1

the plumber in the last estate I built used brass compression Qual plex fittings.

disaster. One entire row of houses was pulled apart with leaks. They seem to loosen off 6 months down the line. Then again , it could have been the bunch of apprentice plumbers who fitted them. My house had 3 leaks with compression fitting as well. went lose.

mad DIY

gsxr1 wrote: »

the plumber in the last estate I built used brass compression Qual plex fittings.

disaster. One entire row of houses was pulled apart with leaks. They seem to loosen off 6 months down the line. Then again , it could have been the bunch of apprentice plumbers who fitted them. My house had 3 leaks with compression fitting as well. went lose.

Maybe some idiot didn't know you're supposed to use inserts if using brass fittings on Qualpex.

gsxr1

mad DIY wrote: »

Maybe some idiot didn't know you're supposed to use inserts if using brass fittings on Qualpex.

I suspect it was the fitting them selfs. They all had the inserts and olives.

Two different plumbing crews. costs 1000s to fix the mess after new home owners moved in. Plumbing distroyed the good name of the builder over it and did not stand over their work.

Tis the last time I would recomend the cheapest price . You get what ye pay for.

Joey the lips

mad DIY wrote: »

Maybe some idiot didn't know you're supposed to use inserts if using brass fittings on Qualpex.

There is something wrong with the wording here qualplex dont do compression as far as I know and I agree the inserts were left out

10-10-20

I just couldn't bring myself to use push-fits.
I just can't see them as being as reliable as compression fittings.
I just fitted 6 compression fittings 40 mins ago to the incoming water mains here at home - no way would I have used push-fittings.

DublinDilbert

10-10-20 wrote: »

I just couldn't bring myself to use push-fits.
I just can't see them as being as reliable as compression fittings.
I just fitted 6 compression fittings 40 mins ago to the incoming water mains here at home - no way would I have used push-fittings.

I have mixed feelings about push fits also.... they are very handy to install. I think both push fits and compression fittings, if installed correctly won't leak initially.

My problem would be what about in 10/15 years time, what's the sealing o-ring in the push fit going to be like? o-rings do fail over time... it could even be down the the particular material used for the o-ring. I wonder how much validation / life cycle testing push fittings have been given?

hopalong_ie

I replumbed an entire apartment with the pushfit (techtite) fittings, two years later no leaks, well actually i do, from a non pushfit gatevalve. :-), One thing is about the pushfit fittings is that you can't put sideway pressure on the fittings as others said. But as do have faith in them. Did get one bad fitting that weeped but 30 seconds later a new fitting was swopped in.