Hi there. My name is Nils with LRN2DIY,
and today we're going to give you an overview of how to use PEX pipe and
PEX fittings to do your plumbing for homeowners. So let's say for example,
you have a scenario where you need a half inch pipe and you've just got to run
another one off of it. You've got to create a T. With PEX,
it's really nice because you have your red pipe for hot,
your blue pipe for cold. And then there's also white PEX,
which is probably the more common to use in a lot of situations.
It's actually a little bit less expensive at most places,
but I really love using the red and blue because it's very clear to see what's
hot and what's cold. So to do that, it's really simple.
We're going to take this, we'll take a basic pair of shears here,
and these are ratcheted. And so as you close it up,
they hold in place for you and you can use these to cut PVC or anything else.
And they only cost about 12 bucks for a set like this.
So I can put this in here, make a cut, and it's gonna cut nice and clean.
Like this and not much to it. So that'll do a really nice clean cut.
I'm going to cut one more piece for our T here.
Okay.
So I've got three pieces and I'm going to make a T like this to run off to a
sink or a toilet or something of that nature, for example.
So all we need to do for that is we can take one of our elbow or our T's here
For the half inch. You'll notice I'm using shark bite for most of these,
and it's kind of convenient because all of the half-inch stuff has pink on the
bags and all of the three-quarter-inch has blue on the bags.
So I'm going to show you how to use both of these types of crimps here.
So first we'll slide over a copper ring on one side,
and then we'll fit in our barbed T. Then on the other side,
we'll slide on a pinch clamp and also slide that over the T making sure
to get right up to the ends. There's little stoppers on here that you can see.
And that's how you know, you've got it right up to the right place right there.
So I'll put those in place and then we can pick another one for our T here,
so I'll put another clamp ring on here. Here we go.
So that's the general structure of it, and now to tighten these down,
we're going to make sure that these are about 1/8 of an inch away from the end
of the pipe and for the clamp rings or the pinch clamps. Sorry,
I'm just going to use my tool here to go ahead and tighten these down and you'll
see, it's got a nice wide open mouth.
I'm going to apply that to the thick part that sticks out here on the clamp
ring, Pinch clamp.
I can't get the terminologies. Right. Okay.
So I'll put it on the pinch clamp here , has to be all the way open to start.
There we go. Okay. So once that's in there,
then it's really just a matter of squeezing that.
Okay.
You can see from the profile here,
it really squeezed the heck out of that thing and brought that whole clamp right
in tight and even created a little cinching factor there on the pipe,
which is exactly what we want. Now real quick,
I'll do the same thing on the next one. The other pinch clamp,
put that in, make sure I'm about 1/8 of an inch away from the end,
and I'm in good on that barbed T, and it ratchets down.
And there we go. So that one's all set as well.
So those two are good. Now I'm going to show you how to do the copper rings.
I've got a little tool here and this is also pretty inexpensive and you can see
it's got a half inch crimp up here, a 3/8 crimp.
And the cool thing on this is you can flip it around and you can have on the
other side now you've got your three-quarter crimp and a three-quarter gauge.
So we'll show you how these all work in just a second.
So I'm going to place this with a half-inch crimp onto my
ring. Again, lining up our,
approximate 1/8 gap there toward the end,
and then all you need to power these is a pair of vice grips.
So I've got some vice grips here and I've already got them set to the right size
so that I can squeeze them down and they'll close the clamps here.
So as I do that, we
can see it's squeezing down until it closes all the way like that.
So now that's on there really good.
And we're going to check to make sure that that's on there all the way with the
go-no-go gate.
Remove that.
Take it back off, and then right down here,
we have the half inch no-go gauge and the half inch gauge.
Basically what that does for us, if our ring fits in the half inch, go gauge,
we should be all set. If it fits in the no-go gauge,
that means we've squeezed it too far, and it's going to be a little bit oblong,
which means it could leak, which is bad news, of course.
So I'm going to fit it in here. And yeah, you can see right here,
it fits perfectly in that half inch go gauge and it does not fit in the
no-go gauge. So we're good.
So we have a nice watertight fitting just like that with some simple tools and
not a lot of work. And we can use T's, we can use our elbows.
We've got plugs for the end of a line or stubbing something out.
We can connect this to a three-eighths inch nut here for connecting to a water
supply for your toilet or for a sink. Over here,
we've got the kind where you can connect this to your shower for your hot and
cold or your shower head.
And you can fasten this to a 2x4 or something on the wall.
And it's got a nice barbed PEX fitting just like that.
Now both with the half inch and the three quarter inch,
you can buy these little clamps that actually are holders.
They hold everything down in place. And then you can basically just, let's say,
we did this connection here. We want it to fasten it.
You can just put it right up against like that,
drive the nail into a stud or a 2x4 back behind it,
and that holds everything in place.
Another really nice thing about PEX is it's flexible.
You've got a good amount of flex in there.
You don't want to overdo it or try to do crazy angles or anything like that,
but it can go pretty far before it starts to crimp or bend.
If it does crimp or bend, it needs to be replaced. It's not something,
with PEX B, at least that's going to recover from that.
I just I thought I'd show a quick real world example of where this is
applicable.
I've got a hot water pipe up here that I need to splice into to run a hot water
line up to our upstairs bathroom.
So I'm going to show you exactly how to do that.
Using just the same techniques that we just looked at a minute ago.
So here's the cold water that comes in to the water heater itself here.
So I'm also gonna make sure that's off.
I'll turn the hot water on turn on the hot side,
especially down here in the basement. Same thing in the kitchenette.
Already have no water to the shower. So that's a good sign.
This one is about done and all of the other ones are drained.
So we're ready to cut open the line. I've also brought a
rag to cover this up.
What I'm thinking I'll do is I'll cut it right over here,
just because there's all this goop here as it goes into one of the air returns.
So I'll get that ready.
I'm just going to use the same cutters that we showed earlier.
Get them primed a little bit.
And I'm going to cut probably right here.
Okay. We'll cut in here
and I'm going to kind of protect this just so it doesn't come squirting out at
me. Move this over a bit.
All right, here we go.
We've got a little bit, not too much coming out. That's good.
Okay. You can see that.
There's not much there, which means we did a good job of draining the lines.
And that's pretty much it. I'm going to point these down
to really get anything that's left.
Now with those cutters, I'll create a slightly larger gap.
Enough that we can fit the T in it with a little bit of finagling.
So I'll go about here.
So I've got about a one inch gap in there.
I'm going to slide my pinch clamps onto the three-quarter inch
there and here.
And then I'll basically,
there's some water still coming out for the barb fitting in there
as well as in there. Good. Okay. That's exactly what I needed.
And I've got the half inch pipe. You probably can't see it on camera,
but it's pointing up that way towards where the water line is going to go my
half inch. So now with those in place, take my
crimping tool. Get my measurements about an eighth inch away there.
Right there.
There we go. There's one, make
sure that one's all the way on
And there's two. Okay. So our three quarter inch line should be good to go.
Now we'll do the same with the half inch line as I feed it upstairs.
I'm going to start by placing it up. In fact, I'll put this end up.
That's going up to the bathroom upstairs right next to the cold water.
I'll put a crimp ring on it, pinch clamp on it.
And then fit it.
Over the barbed fitting, just like so, and we should be good.
Yep. I think we're okay.
And that's that.
So now we have an open line upstairs that we'll go take a look at,
but down here, the plumbing is done. That took like five minutes to do,
maybe less. And that's it.
The appropriate time to put a flange on like this white one right here.
And I don't have one right now.
So I'm actually going to have to put one on after,
by cutting it and sliding it around, but for now,
I'm just going to move ahead and then use my cutters.
To.
Cut this to length.
I'll slide on my pinch clamp facing out
towards me, put in the valve, and
kind of face it that way a little bit.
And then as long as I can reach it anyway.
There we go.
Just a matter of clamping down on this thing.
There we go.
And now with the valve closed,
then I should be able to turn the hot water back on.
Nothing will come up here until I open it,
and I can connect this to the bidet that we're going to be putting up here.
Okay. Now the hot water,
or the cold water's coming back into the hot water heater and
I've already turned the main on. So.
I hear water going into the sinks, but up here
we are dry.
Good. Okay.
Right now all of the water's back on including the hot water and that has sealed
off really nicely, no leaks, no issues.
And that's how easy it can be to install a new waterline.
So hopefully this helps you feel a little less intimidated by working with some
of the plumbing inside your home.
Working with PEX in particular can be actually pretty straightforward and simple
to work with. And I've done full basement finishes, new bathrooms,
different things like that. And this stuff has always been very reliable,
never had any leaks or issues with it. And it's just a great way to go.
So if you have questions or comments,
please feel free to leave those in the comment section below,
we've got several other videos coming out around plumbing and plumbing for
homeowners and just helping you get started and feel comfortable with whatever
plumbing you need to do in your home. My name is Nils with LRN2DIY.
Thanks for watching. And we'll see you next time.