grover posted:

PEX really is great stuff; I think it gets a bad rap just because it's so simple, so cheap and so reliable that anybody can do it. It's almost too easy... It's lead to entirely new approaches to plumbing- PEX houses often don't have networks like copper houses do, but instead use a manifold near the water heater with runs directly from there to each fixture. (It's about the same price to run 5 individual unbroken 1/2" lines to a bathroom than it is to run 3/4" hot/cold and split them out in the walls.) The worst part was that it required a $100+ crimp tool to crimp the copper sleeves onto the fittings (and you need 3 different sizes...), but new fittings now have made it less of an issue for small DIY jobs. Those shark-bite fittings are pricey, but they're great if you don't have access to a crimp tool, or if the space is simply too tight to use a crimp tool, like it often is under sinks.