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JonJackjon t1_j73g401 wrote

Reply to comment by Great68 in Sharkbite connectors PSA by InfiniteCurrency8

If you are referring to a scientific study of the failure rate of soldered copper vs sharkbite vs ________. I am not aware of any.

However there is at least one lawsuit against sharkbite's which suggests at least some folks have had issues with them. I know of no current or past lawsuits against copper. Remember to be problematic a device need not be scientifically compared to a "standard".

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Great_Bodini t1_j73hd6v wrote

Copper isn’t a company you can sue. Manufacturers have QA areas that sample to make sure what they are putting out meets standard. Copper fails all the time, very likely due to the sheer amount of it in use, but unless you track it back to one manufacturing facility, you can’t sue anybody for it failing.

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JonJackjon t1_j73vpq9 wrote

You could sue the tubing mfg, but only if you could prove the copper was not suitable for the advertised application.

I'm not aware of copper failing due to normal usage only. Yes freezing, certain types of water will erode copper. But I've yet seen a properly sweated copper pipe or joint fail. My dad's house was built in 1951, no leaks to date. None of my friends or coworkers have ever had issues.

So I disagree with your statement "copper fails all the time".

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Sparkynplumb t1_j769n5h wrote

In my 5 years as a resi service plumber I've seen copper fail "all the time". I had a poorly soldered joint (under pressure) randomly come apart when I bumped It. I've replaced entire houses with PEX due to well water eating the copper. Yeah I've had SharkBites give trouble, but I wouldn't be afraid to use in my own house.

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JonJackjon t1_j77s753 wrote

The next town over has water that tends to eat through copper. They get small pinholes start to leak then they realize this is the same throughout the house. This is a tough one to categorize as one could argue it was a misapplication or poor installation as the water should have been treated.

Things like poorly soldered joints or poorly assembled PEX termination or Sharkbites are a tough thing to quantify. Surely you've found how to make a good solder joint. However I would not characterize any failure resulting from a poor installation to be a failure of the product.

I will admit in my home I'm very conservative. I personally sleep better feeling the all copper plumbing is the best I can do.

BTW I also have water sensors in a number of places that can shut off the main water supply if water is sensed.

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