Dang Water Heater

[Dhal22]

I'm not a fan of PEX or plastic pipes of any kind. Copper will likely last longer than the house. Soldering is dead easy.
While I was living in London they had started using stainless steel tubing for domestic water systems due to the price of copper. That was a long time ago.
I had an old house with galvanized pipes so full of corrosion almost not water flow. Replaced it all with copper.

We/my company repairs copper failures regularly, including an occasional full repipe. But we do 100’s of jobs a month. I would still build my new house with copper.

 

[Dhal22]

I used to work in a public building and I was the unpaid super of it. Was plumbed with 3/4 copper in the concrete floor - built n 1965. Had one water heater in the middle, 5 public bathrooms and a kitchen. The kitchen was about 70 feet from the water heater. No way to get anything more than lukewarm water to the kitchen sink to wash dishes. Constant complaints, no way to fix it. Had the equavilent of a radiator in the floor to cool the water.

Recirculation pump. And some use the cold water for a return.

 

[woodchucker]

We/my company repairs copper failures regularly, including an occasional full repipe. But we do 100’s of jobs a month. I would still build my new house with copper.

sweated, or crimped?

 

[Dhal22]

sweated, or crimped?

The common copper failures are corrosion, galvanic, concrete contact, etc. Sweated/soldered joint failures are always incorrectly done joints. By crimped I assume you mean Propress. Incorrectly assembled joints (failures) are far more common than soldered joint failures. And even correctly assembled joints will fail in some circumstances.

 

[woodchucker]

yes propress.. to me it looks like a crimping. so if you were to do your house would it be sweated or propress?

 

[Larry$]

About copper pipes: My daughter lives in a rural town that has a very poor water system. I don't know what is in the water but they recommend to not drink it! The water has eaten though the copper pipes in her 10 year old house. Destroyed the washing machine & dishwasher, more than once.
Lots of nitrates in the water from the farm fertilizer.
She hauls water from my house and buys bottled water. Country living!

 

[CJ5Dave]

Sounds like sulfur or iron water.

 

[woodchucker]

probably not iron, I have seen many rusty water places that just continue to work, but look awful.
Sulfur .. nitrates like Larry described.. phosphors ..

 

[RJSakowski]

probably not iron, I have seen many rusty water places that just continue to work, but look awful.
Sulfur .. nitrates like Larry described.. phosphors ..

Iron in the water supply will corrode copper if it is ferric (Fe+3) iron. Ferric sulfate is a common etchant for copper in PC boards. Ferrous iron will not corrode the copper. We have ferrous (Fe+2) iron in our well water. The water has a slight green tint fresh out of the tap. If you leave the water exposed to air, it oxidizes the iron to the ferric state as evidenced by the rust precipitating out. Our softener removes most but not all of the iron.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Most of California is pretty nice. Home prices are high but they seem to be high in Medford, Eugene and points north.
When we travel the west coast we like to see what homes are going for. High!!
Other than insane politics here it’s a beautiful place to live and we do enjoy the four seasons.
Summers are too darn hot.
Not much traffic when you get out of the urban centers.
Oh and my family is here so I’m stuck.

House prices in Honolulu were shocking when we were out there.

$500-700K for a standard 3/2 with a 1/3 acre lot.

Paradise all around, but you’re still stuck in a suburb.

North shore seemed to be cheaper, but some of the houses were literally shacks next to normal homes.

Far too many surf bums for my liking.