These are some of the best videos out there for RV owners, so props to you. I'm hoping someone can push manufacturers to stop doing it wrong in the first place, but I'm not holding my breath.
Looks so easy with a short piece on the work bench. We'll see how it works when I am laying upside down and snaked into the guts of my RV and can only move one arm!
@@undercoverrvtech I looked in my Winnebago and found 11 improper connections. Sheesh. Nothing leaking yet and I keep pressure off system except when I need to run water.
This is a fantastic video. Great information. I've had a bunch of leaks in my brand new 2023 GD. I've been replacing the fittings with barbed and eliminating leaks one by one. Glad to see that you are now teaching the correct method for doing the same. Thank you so much.
I just did this very thing with my entire hot water heater manifold (Grand Design) and added real shut offs not the plastic crap. Leak fixed and 85% crappy plumbing fixed. Now I am pissed. bathroom and kitchen next week. Getter Done!
Thank you!! I have this type of piping in my mobile home and could NOT find any videos that sensibly explain how to even deal with the flexible braided PVC, much less the extra info on the pinch clamps, etc. Now I feel like I can finally fix that leaky spot and save my floor!
Thanks Mark…. Jacob I push the like button while watching the commercials in the beginning.. your vids are very helpful our citation 5th wheel is an 03 several hundred nights used 35000 miles never a problem.. I’d like to get my wife a new one but to nervous hearing about junk slides and lousy plumbing,, going to ours looking new inside and out a nd wait a while hopefully your channel will change manufacturing ideas ,thank you…HAVE FUN!!!
Jacob, thanks for your input. I am from Flair-It, and yes cinch clamps can cause bulging at the fitting/crimp area. Polyvinyl braided pipe can be used in an RV if it has the IAPMO approval, (IAPMO TS 25-2019 covers polyvinyl flexible hoses intended for use in pressurized hot and cold water systems in recreational vehicles and specifies requirements for materials, physical characteristics, performance testing, and markings). Clamp codes are pretty specific, a copper and stainless clamp has to be installed 1/8"-1/4" from the end of the PEX pipe when used with a plastic or brass crimp fitting, the same applies for Polyvinyl pipe. When this does not occur, or the crimp band is installed crooked, or being crimped onto non-approved pipe, a leak can occur. An alternative to a crimp metal band is the PEXLock clamp. When installing the PEXLock clamp on the pipe, simply flush it up to the end of the pipe. The width of the PEXLock clamp covers the entire length of the fitting and captures all 3 barbs, making it a very secure crimp option for Polyvinyl pipe. I own an RV, and love to camp, so I can appreciate other camper concerns and issues. One last thing, the Marine industry has been using gear-type stainless clamps on Polyvinyl pipe for many years, over time, the gear clamp will cut a wear pattern through the outer layer of PV from the sharp openings in the gear clamp body, causing premature wear on the layers of PV pipe, and then eventually a leak.
Thanks for your input. I am vastly interested in learning more from you and want to pick your brain for an upcoming video. If you are interested, shoot me an email, Jacob@rigorrvrepair.com. Thanks!
Ok so I’m new to dealing with the rv plumbing issues, i made notes on researching how to n the different ways of hose clamping etc. No one has ever showed me. I just read over those notes that i copied n pasted from the web 2 years ago, and now I understand them because of this video! Lol obviously i’m a visual learner 🙄, but thank you so much for making these simple short painless to understand videos! 🍻
Update: I'm actually changing my recommendation on barb fittings and clamps for a few reasons. First, apparently not all brass is lead free and good for potable water applications. I've linked stainless barb fittings in my Amazon store now. Second, I found a T-bolt high-pressure hose clamp with is twice as wide and works better than a standard worm drive clamp. KZ still has bad plumbing last I checked. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the tip. Excellent. I noticed your "Black and Yellow" all over. I have a great deal of black and yellow for my house including multiple FlexVolt tools. I swear by the table saw, outdoor blower and the grinder. I repaired/replaced around a 150 sq feet of a back deck last Spring and have three different DeWalt impact drivers and always wanted to do a comparison. I ended up using the 885 brushed old school as my fav. I had a neighbor kid do the final few hundred screws and he also ended up liking it best. He was clueless and after we had a long discussion on brushed vs brushless, history and what to look for. But...for my RV, I have red and black and ONLY M12 and much of that, the older "brushed" versions. I love the size of those tools smaller everything. The inflator and grease gun and the small wet dry vac are great. The small tools great inside RV "spaces." I was working on cabinets inside the house and started getting a bit frustrated here in the fall. Then the light bulb went off and I went out and got the M12/brushed multi-tool. Heaven...
I've found simply adding a worm gear hose clamp beside the pinch clamp works great. It cheaper, easier, and makes sense as a preventative. I've added many when working in an area, and keep a few clamps on hand. Your method is more secure, especially if the original fitting is plastic.
Great video, thank you so much for this video. There is not many videos on how to work with flex tubing and pex tubing. I saved the video under my favorites.
I had a pex fitting leak last year. The compression sleeves were Apollo SS. Not the crimp ons or the copper bands. I found an Apollo compression tool at Home Depot that did the trick. I was lucky as there was no way to replace the fittings without re-piping the water heater.
Hey Jacob, not sure where you are going in Part 3 BUT there are PB x PEX fittings that work great for transitioning from flex to PEX. The PB side of the fitting is a true 1'2" which fits the flex nice and snug. There is also a PB crimp ring which comes with each fitting as well as one for the PEX side.
Thank you for the series, i have purchased your book and will be getting the course when I get close to upgrading my RV. Currently rocking 2022 geo pro 20fbs. and these have helped me a lot.
Thank you so much for this video. Just so I understand correctly, the barb fitting on flex tube with brass is what Brinkley was not doing correctly? They had a regular pinch clamp which could fail?
I know I don’t have your credentials, but I would recommend that you tell your viewers NOT TO TIGHTEN A CLAMP WITH THE DRILL. You and I that are skilled, know exactly when to stop, then hand tighten the last bit to feel you don’t over tighten. SECONDLY, any time you use standard hose clamps, you need to use 2. Ask me how I know? I plumbed my whole house with help from a retired, successful plumber that still sold plumbing supplies. He didn’t tell me to use 2 clamps on my pressure tank connections. In 37 years, the only plumbing failure I have had was that clamp failed, hose popped off, Flooded the garage floor. I put 2 on there,over 25 years ago,not any more issues of any other plumbing, electrical, or structural. I’m also a class B contractor for 37 years, so please don’t dismiss what I am saying. I really appreciate your channel, so not being critical, just an honest feedback. I do wish I had found you before purchasing my rv last year so at least I would have known what to look for up front. Have you ever reviewed a KZ connects? Seem to be a smaller builder, focused on quality, but I have never seen one up close, thanks for all yiu do.
Thanks for your comments. I'm actually changing my recommendation on barb fittings and clamps for a few reasons. First, apparently not all brass is lead free and good for potable water applications. I've linked stainless barb fittings in my Amazon store now. Second, I found a T-bolt high-pressure hose clamp with is twice as wide and works better than a standard worm drive clamp. KZ still has bad plumbing last I checked. Thanks for watching!
Great info on proper securing flexible tubing. Do have a question on PEX concerning RV usage and the two other PEX clamps. You focus on pinch clamps, where there is the solid band clamp and compression clamps. Personally, wouldn't use compression clamps on a house, much less a moving RV. I converted my house from Polybutene to PEX using the solid band clamp (I am an advanced DIYer who grew up in construction). I already have the tool and measuring gauge - but will the band clamp hold equally well as pinch clamps in a moving RV environment?
I've never seen a pinch clamp leak on an RV where there is PEX tubing and PEX fittings. I've never seen copper compression bands leak either, I think either are good for making repairs.
the back of my dometic toilet has a flex tubing as the fresh water supply line. Is the part that connects to the toilet a swivel fitting? If so. since I cannot replace whole line should I go from flex to pex and then to toilet connection?
Thanks for making this - I have done similar with my repairs so good to validate that approach. Questions: on my flexible hose the ID is actually larger than 1/2 inch so the barb is loose. Is that okay or better to use a 5/8 barb? That is tight but doable if I heat the tubing a bit.
That shows how much the hose stretches! This is the reason that video 1 is my preferred method if the hose is not in a slide or on a water pump as a silencer. You can hard PEX the water pump also, but sometimes people don't want any extra noise and use flex, in which case a pre-made hose assembly is best. As for a 5/8 barb, no downside if you can make it fit. Keep an eye out for part 3 soon regarding another option for transitioning from PEX to flex.
I recently made a similar transition repair on my hot water heater line out. I used a brass transition fitting that required tape and putty on the threads. It worked but I didn’t think to use the swivel connector which is way easier and less bulky. I have several more fittings (not leaking yet) to replace and will plan to use the swivel connector. What size barb do you recommend on the 1/2” flexible hose? 1/2” or 5/8”?
How would I fix this on my RV's toilet, and city water connection. Fortunately all my plumbing issues are relativity easy to access. I have a PEX pipe correctly crimped to a 90 degree adapter, then on the 2nd part of the 90 degree adapter is the horrible flex pipe on the PEX adapter, then that FLEX pipe runs up to my toilet to supply the toilet with water, do you have any tips on this, and how to fix it? My city water inlet- there is FLEX hose crimped to the city water inlet, can I just swap that FLEX pipe with PEX, or is there something else I have to to? I would really appreciate your thoughts on my 2 bad connections.
If you watch video#1 in this series, this shows my preferred method for replacing flex with PEX. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mBr29eQsdUg.html You may have to add additional elbow fittings if the flex curves in a way that the PEX can't, but usually you can remove the pinch clamps and flex and directly replace with PEX and pinch clamps because they use PEX fittings already. Hope this helps!
@@undercoverrvtech It does help, thank you so much. Why can't the manufacturer just do it right, it just astounds me that it is able to be certified by the RVIA, it says on my RV "this RV compiles with the RVIA for electrical PLUMBING, etc, well the industry needs to change. I have a 2019 Coachmen Viking 21bhs, and have never had any issues until this year with the plumbing, i'm so glad I found your video!
Good morning, just wondering if the compression rings would work on this also, that's the style I bought to start using pex in my home. I already have all the tools for that style.
Jacob, when removing the flex hose from an RV could you use high flow washing machine hose to replace? I assume the flex hose is installed to make it easier to remove water heaters from our RV. What is your thoughts on this?
Washing machine hoses use a garden hose connector that is not compatible with NPT threads. The swivel connector you see me use goes on 1/2 NPT threads. On water heaters there should be 1/2 NPT male thread pipe nipples going in and out - although on many the hot output has a check valve needed for the bypass system to work - still NPT thread just not a basic pipe nipple.
It almost seems that a plumbing company that manufacturers plumbing parts could make PEX type fittings for RV's. If a company were to consider labor costs to make an incorrect fitting, the fact that they are setting consumers up to have plumbing fail, and the time associated with creating a flawed connection, it would seem that the plumbing company could make money, the RV manufactuer could at least come out even and they would have the core benefit of keeping their customers happy... This is just plan stupid that so many of the companies do this IN THE FACE OF THEIR OWN AGREED TO STANDARDS.
@undercoverrvtech Have you tried using a 5/8" barbed fitting for the flexible tubing, instead of 1/2" barbed fitting? I saw another video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-A6WD5RXk8gA.html) where that was done and it's a much tighter fit and (hopefully) less prone to leak. I'm going to try installing one next time I've got my trailer at the house. I'll probably have to warm up the tubing first because it's going to have to stretch quite a bit.
