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PEX Pipe is revolutionizing the plumbing industry because it's so easy to work with
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Over the next few minutes, I'm going to show you the fastest way to make watertight connections with PEX Pipe
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And I'm also going to show you how you can fix kinks in PEX so that it's almost like they never existed at all
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The letters P-E-X are an acronym that stand for cross-linked polyethylene. And PEX Pipe comes in different grades
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This stuff here is PEX A, and it's the highest grade pipe
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And it's the kind you need to do the kind of joints that I'm going to show you here
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There are many ways to complete a connection in PEX Pipe, but the one I like the best involves this ring you see here
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It slips over the end of the pipe before being expanded so that the fitting can be put in and the pipe closing back down over the fitting
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The tool that makes all that possible is this here. It's called a ProPEX Expander
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And as you can see, it's got jaws on the end that open and close rhythmically while it rotates
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This is the tool that stretches the pipe open. It stays open for a few seconds, allowing you to insert the connection
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And then the pipe naturally closes down under its own elasticity to complete a very fast, completely solid, and waterproof connection
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PEX is easy to cut with these shears. Just put it in and snip off a piece like this
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The ring slips over top. It's a fairly tight fit. And as you can see, when you try to put in the fitting, there's just no way it's going to go in there in its current state
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This is where the ProPEX Expander comes in. You put the jaws of the expander in the end of the pipe, and then you turn on the tool
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Let it complete 3, 4, 5 cycles until it's fully expanded that pipe
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Then you quickly remove the expander and put the fitting in and hold it there for about another 4 or 5 seconds
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That's enough time for the PEX to shrink down over the fitting and to lock it permanently in place
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It's solid and watertight in a few minutes. Building inspectors especially like this method because they can tell at a glance whether the pipe connections have been completed properly
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which is not the case with other forms of connectors that use crimped bands, which can sometimes be left uncrimped accidentally
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One of the challenges when you're working with any kind of plastic-type pipe is kinking
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PEX will bend quite a lot without kinking, but eventually you bend it far enough and a kink will form
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The problem with that is that a kinked area greatly reduces water flow because the sides are restricted in that area
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When you're dealing with PEX-A type pipe, you can heat that area with a heat gun and completely eliminate the kinked shape
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Let me show you how that works right now. Gently heat the kinked area with a heat gun, but make sure you keep it well away from the pipe
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You just want to warm the material. You don't want to overheat it
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As you warm the pipe, you'll find that the kink slowly starts to expand on its own
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You know you've heated the pipe sufficiently when it goes from an opaque appearance to almost completely clear
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When you've gotten that far, turn the heat gun off and let the pipe cool completely on its own until the opaque appearance returns
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The ProPEX Expander can be used for a whole bunch of different pipe sizes simply by changing the finger assembly that goes on the end
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The only maintenance that this cordless tool requires is periodic greasing of the expansion cone in the middle
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If you think about it, that's the part that slides and opens up the fingers, so it does need to be lubricated
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This is the smaller of two ProPEX Expander tools. It uses a 12-volt lithium-ion battery, and it'll handle all typical pipe sizes you'll run into
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There is a larger 18-volt model, which is faster when you're dealing exclusively with larger pipes
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PEX pipe is changing the way people build for the same reason all other innovations are changing the way people build
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Like lots of advances in building technology, it relies on different materials and different tools that you've got to learn and invest in
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But the reality is that you'll get faster, more efficient, and more reliable results in the end
