a vision, in cross-linked Polyethylene

The supply plumbing is PEX - a flexible, plastic conduit in designer colors and dimensional sizes. It's like working with a spool of hula-hoops but it's stronger, more flexible, and ultimately much more user friendly than Copper, or CPVC. I got turned onto PEX by the curmudgeon plumbers in Cape Cod on a job a few years ago. It's originally a German product which means it was developed like this



by guys like this



to work like this




it fishes like wire though a retro-fit situation and the 100' lengths make it possible to use very few fittings. The meat-fisted way i've been working means that fewer fittings makes for fewer possible leaks. And this stuff's made with Lasers* - f'ing lasers, so i'm not sweating it.





*PEX-C is produced by the electron irradiation method, in a "cold" cross-linking process (below the crystal melting temperature). It provides less uniform, lower-degree cross-linking than the Engel method, especially at tube diameters over one inch (2.5 cm), and when the process is not controlled properly, the outer layer of the tubes may become brittle. However, it is the cleanest, most environmentally friendly method of the three, since it does not involve other chemicals and uses only high-energy electrons to split the carbon-hydrogen bonds and facilitate cross-linking.