For many Texan homeowners, the devastating February cold snap and subsequent Texas power grid failure left them with a plumbing Armageddon on their hands as frozen pipes burst across the Lonestar State.
State Farm alone received nearly 19,000 property claims within days of the frigid storm, most of them related to broken water pipes. The largest home insurer in Texas, State Farm said it had received more claims due to frozen pipes in the state than it has from across the entire U.S. in all of 2020.
All of this left many homeowners pondering the choice between copper and PEX piping for repairs or repiping. While both the more traditional copper and newer flexible plastic PEX are fine choices for water pipes inside your home, each comes with its own set of pros and cons.
“While copper still plays an important role in water pipes for new construction, PEX pipe is quickly becoming the choice for remodeling and retrofitting,” says BobVilla.com.
Starting in the 1960s, copper pipes became the go-to piping to replace outdated galvanized steel pipes which tended to rust. While PEX (short for cross-linked polyethylene) was first experimented with in the 1930s, the modern version was “invented” by Dr. Thomas Engel in Germany in 1968.
By the 1970s, PEX was being used in Europe and made its way to North America during the Reagan Administration, mostly for radiant floor heating. PEX started to become competition to copper for residential water lines by the 1990s and all 50 states have approved it, with California the last hold out in 2009. Some estimates have PEX at 63 percent market share of single-family construction and globally the PEX market is poised to grow from $5.5 billion in 2020 to $7.9 billion in 2025.
A 2020 report said that factors driving PEX growth were installations in the automotive and solar industries as well as the fact that “PEX has also become the preferred option for use in the water plumbing application because of its flexibility … moreover, installing PEX is much less labor-intensive than the traditional pipes since fewer connections and fittings are needed in a PEX installation.”
Despite the growing popularity of PEX, many plumbers and homeowners prefer the traditional copper pipes. “Many plumbers remain wary of trading copper for PEX,” says HGTV.
Why do plumbers like copper? Here are some its pros:
Copper pipes, however, do come with some negatives:
“While the initial cost of copper water pipes may be higher, its durability makes it an excellent long-term value,” says Hunker.com.
The flexibility, ease of installation and price point of PEX has made it the choice for many homeowners.
“I’m a big believer in PEX. And because it’s so easy to install, I’d use it in any new home I’d build,” a plumber told the Chicago Tribune. “I just installed over 6,000 feet of hePEX in my daughter’s home for radiant heating, and I installed about 1,500 feet of PEX for her hot and cold water lines.”
Contact Pilot Plumbing today to discuss your PEX and copper pipe options. Our family-owned and operated company since 2005 can help you take care of everything from a leaky faucet to an entire home re-pipe.