Okay, I'm trying to put together an approximate materials list for the DIY option. Can you folks who've installed PEX yourself or had it installed provide some guidance as to what I'll need?

I can measure out how much tubing and so forth I need, but I want to make sure I buy all the odds and ends I'll need for the installation. Here's a diagram I made to try to calculate the amount of tubing and number of fittings and so forth. The computer geek in me is loving how much this stuff resembles doing network cable, though I'm sure that resemblance is limited to the planning phase smile

Anyway, here's my shopping list so far:

A manifold
If I do this, I'm going to do it with home runs to most of the fixtures. Counting up the number of cold and hot endpoints, I think a manifold like this one should do the trick.

PEX tubing
There seem to be many brands. Some brands are only compatible with some of the fittings. I'll probably decide which way to go with the fittings and choose the tubing based on that.

There appear to be many different ways to join tubing to the various manifolds and fittings. There are copper crimp rings, stainless steel clamps, and expansion fittings, all of which require a specialized tool, and then there are sharkbite fittings that you just push the tubing on to. I'm ruling out the sharkbite ones based on what I've read, along with the fact that it just doesn't seem as sturdy to me on paper. But does anyone have opinions on which of the clamp/crimp/expansion options is better?

Fittings
I'll go through all my fixtures and figure out what I need to connect them. There's a special water heater connector available that I'll probably get. I'll also need some Ts to do splits where home runs are inconvenient/unnecessary. What else? I see they make 90 degree elbows, why would I need those when PEX is so flexible?

Installation stuff
I'll buy or rent whatever tool is necessary to do the crimping/clamping/whatever. I'll also buy various J hooks, fasteners, etc. for keeping the tubing in place and as neat as possible

What else am I likely to need?


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- Tony C
my empeg stuff