Inside a bottle air vent and plumbing ramble. (No electronics whatsoever.) 

Thanks for sending viewers to my pressure testing video of the push fit fitting 😉 I installed a kitchen tap for my sister a few weeks back, and noticed that the “plumbers” that installed it had used plastic pipe- with NO INSERTS! I was shocked, so decided to test out plastic pipe on the pressure test bucket, without the inserts. I pumped the bucket up to the maximum (over 50 BAR) and not much happened. I expected the fitting to pop right off the pipe, but it didn’t! Obviously the test was done with cold water and I am in no way suggesting that inserts are not used! I would imagine that if hot water was used, you could get very wet- very quickly due to the expansion and contraction. You have a great channel and some good subscribers, congratulations! Greetings from Darwen, Lancashire.

Electricity, Hidraulics, same thing, both involve angry magical beings, angry pixies and unyielding nymphs respectively

That vent kind of reminds me in a way of a carburettor bowl, but working to let the air out rather than the fuel in...

♫ Zu klein, Zu groß, Every size will fit this hose, Ram it in, Tighten up, Turn it out, Bratwurst im dein sauerkraut!♫ *sets fire to pyrotechnic angel wings* ... see? Rammstein songs are half plumbing.

I used to live in an apartment with underground parking. There was a hose bib in my stall, I washed my car a few times before I realized the water changed to hot in the winter. Oopse :)

Under floor heating generally uses 16mm Pex-Al-Pex piping.Very reliable in my experience.

Worked in the business for years, maintaining many MOD sites, copper all the way. In my experience, plastic compression fitting will give in at random times, as an example of 500 new accommodation spaces built , there were at least 100 failures of push fits within the first year, the rate of failure of soldered copper? 0, none. Plastic is a cheap, easy and less skilful way of piping up, once you use a push fit and remove the o ring from the copper it's useless and will inevitably fail.

Properly installed good quality copper pipe and fittings will last indefinitely. O-rings are not forever and will eventually fail in 20-60 years. Contractors love plastic, not because it's better or cheaper but because it takes a fraction of the time to install and requires far less skill.

I first used Speedfit (or similar) plastic pipe and fittings about 10 years ago. A neighbour came round to help me move a radiator in the bedroom onto an adjacent wall. He recommended plastic but I was a bit dubious - especially as the floorboards were going back down afterwards, then a new carpet and I was worried about how secure these new kids on the block would be in the long term. It certainly made the job easier though and we simply re-routed the existing pipework by drilling a 15mm hole in each joist and pushed the plastic pipe through. I even used plastic fittings for the final 90 degree elbows, but for the vertical feeds I did use copper. Or rather, I cut the existing copper pipe just beyond floor level. The ridiculously simple "push on" fittings couldn't be any good I thought - as I usually used solder ring fittings. But, the system was refilled, bled and there were no problems at all. I save a few hours overall. The only thing to remember is that you don't use plastic pipe or fittings within the first (or last) 1 metre from the boiler.

PEX, the absolute best! It will last longer than we will! No more worry about copper degrading and pin hole leaks. What a refreshing video change. Hopefully you have more plumbing projects. Electrical and plumbing, is there anything better? Well, maybe eating!

10:36 in case of a clogged up valve one could take the top nipple screw cap off and push down on the valve by sticking a thin screwdriver through the bleeder hole. That way you have a quick fix with out having to depressurize the whole system

use plastic everyday, maybe 2 leaks in last 10 years...make sure pipe is clipped to joists etc well

PEX means polyethylene cross-linked

Expanding Horizons!! non-electrical tear-downs. the mind boggles, the opportunities myriad, a whole new Universe is opening up. it was the siphon pump on the bubble blower wasn't it. yeah, me too.

Plastic pipe is cross-linked poly-ethylene. Proper ways of connecting it is using "crimp" style fittings or expanding ring fittings (Wirsbo) or "quick and easy" method. Push fit fittings such as "shark-bite" or O-ring fittings should be considered temporary methods. PEX piping will out-last copper if using proper joining methods. Copper is not better.

In Norway we use "pipe in pipe" systems now. Basically a corrugated pipe is installed with a plastic water line inside it going back to a main water cabinet. Essentially the plumbing industry is doing the same thing as the electricians here. So if you have a leak it'll leak back to the water cabinet which should be installed in a water safe room and spill out on the floor there instead of all over your house. That is if your leak is in the walls. Anything on the outside is still liable to cause damage, but that's why you're also required to install water sensors and an electric shut off valve system under the kitchen furniture etc. Just like you're required to install a temperature sensor shut off thingy over the stove (Which sucks btw, never work like they should and are pointless for induction stove tops IMO!) www.johnguest.com/speedfit/product/pipe/pipe-in-pipe/ It's a nice system IMO. It looks like the pipe you're showing here is one half of the John Guest pipe-in-pipe system. EDIT: Basically it means you have one run of water to the kitchen faucet, one run to the dishwasher, one run to the toilet, one run to the shower and so on. So it does require some more pipes to be installed, but it's really good for preventing water damage.

The technical term for that olive is a ferrule.

"playing with something that can flood your house out." Stop bragging.

but i like the schematics.its the most valuable thing your channel offers, i look forward to learning from them

The popular American brand is " shark bite " expensive but worth while for repair work or joining dissimilar materials .

If you can, you should take a look at the spirotech deaerator that are getting very common here in Belgium. They seem a bit more advanced and mysterious. I also watch the ultimate handyman, like his accent! :)

Most of the plastic pipe work I’ve done involved adhesives. Hadn’t seen that type of fitting before. I don’t have all that much experience. Obviously it was all PVC pipe; probably I’d use PEX for new construction. I did have a pinhole leak in a copper pipe here (1970s work). Condominium: my monthly fees covered the plumber’s work.

Thanks for the air vent explanation. I've always wondered how they could let the air out but not spray water constantly.

Glad to see you opted for the GF kitemarked version. Beware of chinese clones, short mouldings, poor o rings and doggy steel clips that rust tend to make them fail often. My Dad did his bathroom using cheap chinese clones, they failed after 3 months, and completely flooded his house overnight. He had to rip up all the newly laid floors upstairs, completely redecorate the whole house while our family moved out for 6 weeks. The insurance refused to pay out as the fittings were not up to code and were not fitted by a professional plumber. For the sake of using kitemarked parts he paid out £1000s and then had to have all the piping and fittings replaced. Beware of Chinese clones.

I imagine the clever spring pivot thing allows the silicon stopper to find its own location on the outlet port. If it was a rigid hinge there's a chance the two would fail to align and water could ooze through. These things have a lot of thought & experience put into their design resulting in quite elegant solutions.

Great video as always Clive. Did you know that on the plastic pipe fitting, if you continue to unscrew it past the the resistance point the whole thing disassembles. This makes it easier to remove the pipe insert instead of using pliers. Cheers Dave

Have faith in the speed fit, but what I didn't tell you when I recommended it earlier is that you absolutely must install a water hammer arrestor in the system. Otherwise the water hammer over the years will have a tendency to overly stress the o rings causing failure.

Really interesting to see inside the auto air vent . Fitted them but never tried to open it up. Believe the insert without external o rings are Used when plastic is used on brass/copper compression fittings with an olive . Used lots of John Guest pipe and fittings and found it good. Nice to use copper when on show though.

I have never seen a rubber seal last more than 25 years without developing a slight leak, on anything ever. Just saying

we use a system like this , french made, transair piping for compressed air , its extruded aluminum and has a WP of 236 psi but tested to twice that

we replaced lots of plastic with copper... because of mice nibbling heating pipes.

It's also worth noting the air valve will allow air to be drawn into the system when it's being drained down and helps avoid vacuum locks

We had tons of pinholes in our nearly 40 year old copper pipes. We had the entire place repiped in PEX (cross linked polyethylene) and the plumber who did the work used steel ripped connections. So far so good.

the thing with plastic pipes is what will it be like in 20 years will i have to replace it again? copper might be harder to install but at least it is tried and tested so you know it will out last us

One of the nice things about plastic is it tastes nice when the mice eat it.

Those things last until the o-ring inside degrades and wears out. So, you have no idea how long they'll last, because you have no idea if the manufacturer decided to cut expenses and use cheaper material, or they used good stuff that would last as long as the pipes.

Here in germany pex is basically the new standard. Though in the non diy market usually its pressed fittings which are smaller and thought of more reliable. Works with Copper as well.

Plastic pushfits are all well and good - but come back 20 to 30 years later, when the rubber seals have degraded and the plastic becomes hard. Then tell me they're great. I'm just waiting for the epidemic in about 10 years time when all these new build houses that are full of nothing but plastic pipe and pushfits, all starts to fail. All these pipes that are buried behind dot dab plasterboard and in ceiling voids - they'll have to rip the house to pieces to get at them. Why do i say this? - i have seen the results of this shit failing already, on a 12 year old new build. Galvanic corrosion is one mode of failure, from where a plastic pushfit is used to go from copper to plastic - the metal ring that grips the pipe starts to degrade on the copper side. Other failures are thin bore plastic central heating pipe that becomes very hard and the slightest movement of the radiator has resulted in leaks, in one instance the fitting came straight off and drained the entire central heating system down, flooding the bottom floor. Of course copper pipe is very hard - but it is installed in a way where it's not designed to move much. Plastic pipes on the other hand are installed in an incredibly hap hazard way, with forced bends and criss crossing all over the place along with on radiators that are designed to be hung forward for access when decorating. It's all great until the pipe turns hard and somewhat brittle from 1000's of heat cycles over many years.

Dont use the push on fittings on chrome pipe it wont grip

If you think about the plastic failing from a soda bottle perspective, that the plastic takes hundreds of PSI to fail is perfectly reasonable (certain types of plastic LOVE tension like concrete LOVES compression). Fairly thin walled soda bottles take tens of PSI no problem including drops, so several millimeters of plastic taking up to several hundred also makes perfect sense, even on the fittings. If anything metal is weaker in those situations unless you use super low diameter piping (with a to-scale thick wall) where hundreds/thousands of PSI is involved like diesel engine fuel injector lines. PEX according to a very quick search - Cross-linked Polyethylene tubing (PolyEthylene[cross*]) *where cross is frequently represented with an x, probably because it's super easy to do on a keyboard and + may not be usable in every computer system due to special character restrictions. I've seen it before in a tech term but forgot what term it was. With more time and a wikipedia section copied out - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene Cross-linked polyethylene, commonly abbreviated PEX, XPE or XLPE, is a form of polyethylene with cross-links. It is used predominantly in building services pipework systems, hydronic radiant heating and cooling systems, domestic water piping, and insulation for high tension (high voltage) electrical cables. It is also used for natural gas and offshore oil applications, chemical transportation, and transportation of sewage and slurries. PEX is an alternative to polyvinyl chloride (PVC), chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) or copper tubing for use as residential water pipes.

Had the very same in my house since around 2003 and haven't had an issue with it yet. I think if you observe the points you already made about protection of the O rings (no burrs etc) then it's fairly robust system. Great vids Clive, keep em coming...

Yeah, the plastic will last, it will be around for 10,000 years. XD

We used air eliminators on pumps running liquids with high amounts of dissolved gas. Different design, basically just a metal ball that floats. Constant PITA.

Used plastic for the first time on a bathroom refit. All was well until I fitted a shower pump, first time I've ever used the house insurance to clean up the flood. Went back to 22mm copper for the shower feed and all's well. Caution advised.

I was told by a friend who was a builder that he'd worked on systems done in plastic, it's very important to provide a lot of support for the pipework.

I've been using plastic plumbing since 1994. Hep2O in the early days and mostly JG speedfit in recent times as it's more widely available. Not had any issues with failures. I do still like a bit of copper sometimes, e.g. for very high temperature stuff like solar thermal, but plastic is so much easier most of the time. It's funny to see someone in 2019 who's never tried it before.

"no electronics whatsoever" nonsense, electricity is a sort of water, they taught me that at the technical college!

Clive I have used speedfit for many years with no problems other than my own stupidity! ( forgetting to put the insert in ) I have test rig equipment that I have taken Apart and then re jigged different configurations many many times and it’s sealed up tight every time. I like copper but it’s hard to ignore and very convenient.

yes but plastic pipe connectors are much MUCH bigger compared to soldered copper joints

Pex is polyethylene- cross linked. The barrier is for preventing oxygen permeation

Known in Scotland as a ‘snifter’ valve. Same word for a wee dram...

The only problem with plastic pipe systems is mice....they can have a wee munch on you pipes and then your in trouble

Your old pipe was cavitated beause of shoddy installation. When you don't deburr the ends properly that can happen because of turbulence caused by the burrs.

I'm surprised you aren't in favor of copper. You know how to solder. It's more solid, connectors are much cheaper than those plastic systems. The problem is those plastic systems have not been in place long enough to really know how they fare up in real world conditions. PEX, maybe is OK. For anything with pressure I want copper. Plastic is OK for drains & wastewater. I just had some brass waste pipes go. They lasted from 1958 until now. Mostly they wore thin than gave way when I was trying to snake the drain. For my money that 60 years is more than a lifetime. Most "lifetime" products sold to the consumer these days are only 15-20 years. Just some things to keep in mind.

Hi Clive, I was watching your video on bottle air vents, and a couple of things came to mind. Like you, I've always sworn by copper as compared to the new untested plastic pipes. But two winters ago, they had some prolonged periods of below freezing weather in wales. And as my son and his wife have a wooden holiday chalet in wales, when they made their first visit after the winter, and they turned the water back on, there were at least ten different bursts in the pipework. But when I went with them to do the repairs, we found that half of the chalet (I'm guessing it must have been an extension built on the original), was piped for both hot and cold water with plastic pipe of the type you were describing. And whereas the sections of copper in all other areas of the chalet have ruptured, there wasn't one leak, nor forced joint, nor split in any of the plastic system. So maybe, plastic is the way to go. And one more thing, if I'm not boring you; your pinholes in your copper pipe. A thought that struck me, was that I've always cleaned the ends of the pipes with wire-wool. I assume you're familiar with this stuff. And whereas it doesn't leave significant grooves or scoring, tiny little fragments of the iron strands can and do flake off. Could those pin-holes have been caused by such little fragments floating down the pipe and then settling? And over time, some kind of dissimilar metal electrolytic reaction has eaten its way through. Anyway, these are just my thoughts, and I thought it was about time I thanked you for your instructional videos; keep up the good work.

I distrust plastic as well, i cant see plastic lasting like the copper pipes in your house. I live in a house from 1948, all but one copper pipe is original, 71 year old copper pipes.

Have replaced one of these . They tend to leak late at night when the heating as been switch off . They next day I would allow more water into the combey heating system. Rust got into the valve let out air but also water that's why in the morning had to top the water up .

We used push fit fittings for compressed air at the factory and found them reliable

Pex, it's a generic name for any plastic pipe by most pollyhexylene (NOT SURE OF THE SPELLING) I'm sure you can Google it if interested, at least thats my opinion it used to stand for a very specific type of pipe to replace copper pipe but over the years misused a lot by folks not in the plumbing industry, my first job in plumbing (I lived in Las Vegas at the time 6000 people moved there a month and was rising. The late 90's) we were the first crew in the US to use wirsbow or wursbo sorry about the spelling there I can't recall. Anyway the stuff was great to work with and tuff the one flaw it would break down in direct sunlight turn yellow decompose. Also you needed the $1500.00 expanding tool. We were told to try our hardest to find faults. We really couldn't. They were looking for the replacement for the grey polybutylene blue and red striped with copper crimp ring "poly" for the love of all holy stay away from the grey poly stuff with them dam crimp rings. pex came later there seems to be many manufacturers of it now they all have a style. My point to the system you just showed is it's very similar to diesel truck air lines in the US and Canada anyway im sure in the EU also. So if it's good for Dot in the US and your equivalent in the EU I'm betting it's pretty good. The difference would be the schedule of the pipe the air line stuff is much thinner. One big thing in my 13 years in the plumbing industry was the taste of water you just couldn't beat copper. But there is alot in play now tho water filters, bottled water, so straight out of the faucet isnt really popular as it used to be. I'm still a copper guy, but these press fit plastics are crazy popular here in the US right now. At the home repair stores, now are they being used by plumbers I dont now I'm not in the industry anymore. But I can speak to the durability of the press fit as a solid connection. Especially with the added spin after the press fit the air lines in trucks do not have that. They simply press in and done. Disclaimer : I might not have got the technical names spelled right. I have worked several industries and I might suffer from industrial cross over memory. Just stay way from the grey stuff. I think they only use it in mobile homes now.

Hmmm. We got a plastic piping called "polycopper". It's a pinkish/red direct replacement for copper. It also uses the same brass ring ferrules.

The wall thickness of copper pipe is much thinner these days. I have used push fit throughout the house with no issue.

Is there a medical version to prevent liquid seepage?

We use connectors like this for the caravans at work, me being adept at unscrewing the connectors when I need a water hook up (generally for the jet wash) But I will categorically say that they most definitely do split when they freeze, something that we found out last year when we had a couple of sudden cold snaps, caused absolute havoc!

Hi Clive, I have used pushfit for years and never had a problem with it. The other good thing about plastic pipes is, as they come in coils you can have a long run with no joins and it can be run through joists etc just like a cable(ok a thick cable)

0:10 - "I bought it while I was getting some other stuff..." You don't say. Somehow I think BigClive *_never_* just buys what he originally went to the store for but at least 5-10 other things...especially if he's going to Poundland. Not criticizing BigClive...I usually do the same thing. ;)

As a retired marine engineer, I have always sworn by copper pipe, but seeing this has given me food for thought. Very interesting video (as always). Keep up the good works.

As a plumber I despise these vents. They fail often. The O ring under the cap fails. We always install a valve below them for quick and easy replacement. Some come with a "service check valve" which in theory is supposed to stop water flow when you unscrew the vent from it, In my experience those rarely work. Never seen one with a compression fitting before.... My opinion is O rings are often the weakest parts of heating systems and the first things to fail, many times they are damaged from the factory because the threads can easily cut them as things are assembled.

Not sure why I watch this. Perhaps it's just nice to hear a fellow Scotsman talk. Thanks for the video, Clive.

They are brilliant for quick repairs, just make sure the fitting itself is protected from frost as they can expand with ice if frozen and burst. I have seen the pipe itself burst, but it has to freeze solid. Use it and you will not have any problems for at least 10 years, though I have seen it in for decades without any problems at all. If you use it foe central heating you will have very little loss from the plastic pipe between radiators. Very simple to protect against frost with a small bit of copper pipe on the return to the boiler and a pipe star to bring on the boiler to give a few degrees of heat before turning off the boiler again. Have to say though, if you have oil or propane to make sure you have enough to keep system going, it will not use a lot, but in bad frost it can be surprising. I have used these fittings without any problems. Fit and forget, but just make sure the fitting itself is not exposed to hard frost.

Bee using the JG speedfit for years now, never had a problem and found it more reliable than copper.

For installation in my own home I'd recommend stainless steel pipe, more expensive yes but if you're going to keep living in the house for +20 years definitely worth it (or maybe aluminum core PE-X pipe with a compression sleeve system (like from the company "Rehau")). Stainless steel also being a nice selling point if you do want to sell the house. To the bottle air vent, the cap on it is supposed to be screwed shut at all times and only meant to be unscrewed when you want to vent the pipe. They will leak eventually and depending on where it's installed will cause damage by the time you notice it's defective (seen this too many times.) Source - plumber from Germany

I use that same brass air vent on my furnace with hot water on demand. I don't have a water boiler. These vents fail all the time.

Its OK new but give the plastic pipe 15 years of heat cycling, you'll have a different opinion on plastic piping.

I always crimp my pex connections but this system looks great if you only have a few connections to make. In Canada Sharkbite fittings are the most popular. Always wondered how those auto vents worked, I can hear them vent if air gets into the system, I have them at the highest point in house. The only time my system seems to vent is between pressure changes. Great video. Also there are a few types of pex pipe, the standard stuff lets a small amount of oxygen into the lines, not a big deal for potable water use. Then there are types used for heating that do not let oxygen get into the heating loop, using the standard stuff in a heating system could cause the boiler guts to corrode over time.

The air valve, my guess about the hinge design would be to allow air into the system, for instance a hot water system that has been turned off and so the system becomes a vacuum, which could collapse pipes or tanks, that design will allow it to suck air in to avoid it creating too large a vacuum, and will let it back out again when heated back up.

Use it daily in my line of work (plumber). But not the quick fittings, we use the multi layer pipes but with press fittings pressed with hydraulic press machine.

Plastic fittings and pipes are OK. Big down side is that they are invisible to pipe detection unless you do extra work / tinfoil them

As others have said, it's kind of like the float chamber in a carburetor except instead of shutting off the liquid supply as the liquid level rises, it opens a gas escape valve as the liquid level drops due to filling up with air bubbles. Simple and neat - don't know how well these things cope with the ubiquitous lime scale though.

I've used plastic piping in both my parents house and my own with great success. I've used it on HW and CH in both 15 and 22mm, the only thing you have to use copper for in CH is the first metre from the boiler. It's great stuff because it's so easy to make connections in confined spaces, the pipe can be bent so you can feed it through tight gaps such as joists or around obsticles. It's also impact resistant, won't freeze and split like copper and has better thermal insulation even without lagging. I've mostly used the Hepworth Hep2O brand which I have found to be very robust, professional and reliable. Their original fittings had the grab ring after the O-ring seal so there was no danger of scratches from the grab ring compromising the seal. This fittings could be taken apart but you had to unscrew them. Their new stuff is more like the Speedfit with the grab ring before the O-ring. That said I have demounted and remade without any issues. The Hep2O fittings need a plastic tool to press a pair of recessed pins in to release the grab ring which is perminently trapped in the fitting so no issues with it dropping out like you had. Also no danger of accidentally releasing the grab ring. That was actually the only time I've had a failure (well my dad actually), he thinks he may have knocked the Speedfit release ring and it came apart. The pipe as you said is multi layered with the dark layer acting as a gas barrier for CH systems. It's great stuff, go for it, you'll love it. That said I also quite like doing copper solder joints and bending, and managed to do some really quite impressive multiple bends, in different axes, on some 28mm gravity feed piping.

Pe-x is short for polyethylene cross. Wher the x is like WRX or MX

oh... and I forgot to say... be very careful of using push fit with SS pipe (a stub up to a shower for example) I found out the hard way that the grab ring doesn't bite into the pipe reliably. Luckily it was in a bungalow. :-)

Clive I can't believe that you use compression joints with all the soldering you do, I prefer soldering. I was talking to a plumber who told me he could no longer solder and had to use compression joints because of the risk of getting burnt or causing a fire. Smells of H&S.

I have used plastic pipes for about 20 years and with everything it's all about the installation of the pipe there are three rules for plastic. 1. Be very clean and keep dust out. 2. Copper joints only use a wheel cutter and 3 KEEP EVERYTHING CLEAN. The failures I have seen is mostly about dust from building sites and the only other thing is people not pushing the fitting in far enough usually by not cutting on the marks. ALWAYS ALWAYS put inhibitors in your central heating as the Aav you showed will leak as it's the water pressure that makes the final seal and the smallest amount of dirt will make it leak. Finally the air vent you discribed as a wetting o ring would not be put on a sealed system and are for open vented systems. Love all your vids as I am from the "other side" as a heating engineer that dabels in electronics.

Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX)

I have been using those style of push-to-connect for about 10 years now and haven't had any issue. I have been doing FIRST FRC Robotics for 10 years now and the Pneumatics uses those connects for 1/4" polyurethane tubes. The fittings we use are Parker W68PLP-4-2, 364PLP-4, and W369PLP-4-2 and the pressure reaches 125 psi. I have never seen one fail and we reuse these fittings every year. Needless to say, they are excellent push-to-connect that is easy to install and removal is just as easy.

That pivot is designed to have the air buildup push the float down, and not let it spit water out. We're talking about 12 to 20 lbs of pressure, but if you need to replace one, isolate your expansion tank , turn off the water feed, and bleed the pressure off at the blowoff valve. There will be a big mess if you dont!

barrier pipe is for central heating use, to prevent oxygen ingress through the plastic......speedfit, which the brand you use is great stuff...c'mon clive, dont be afraid!

Copper pipe has antimicrobial properties which positively affect the quality of water passing through it. Dont think I like the idea of the chemicals used in PEX leaching into my drinking water system, or in fact some kind of slime build up....mmm tasty

No electronics whatsoever, but still a very interesting video!

Here in Switzerland we don't use much copper anymore, it's been replaced by stainless steel crimp fittings. The main plastic systems we use are RN Profix RN Flowpress JRG Sanipex MT JRG Sanipex Classic Sanipex is super interesting, it's a plastic compression fitting. Check it out if you're interested Clive!

The spring is not responsible for holding the valve closed, the water pressure in the system is. The spring just keeps the lever in position against the vent opening. This provides positive hysteresis. Fyi..... Cross-linked polyethylene, commonly abbreviated PEX

Hi Clive interesting video -Here in the US we have something very similar to those fittings they are called "Shark Bites" (I think) and like you I am from the "old" school copper era (I am 55) and I had to do some plumbing repair awhile ago when I seen them and thought the same thing as you did "no way --this will leak like a sieve" but I tried them anyway and was blown away how easy and simple they were to install and use AND what would have easily taken me a 1/2 day to re-plumb my bathroom using copper- having to solder and make sure the length is spot on, clean and every little thing else that has to be perfect when using copper so it doesn't leak was finished just over an hours time! I could not believe it' That was 5yrs ago and still not one problem with that type of hook up I wont use anything else now if I have plumbing work to do it is just that easy and simple to use for BOTH Copper AND Plastic pipe

Thank you! Saved me the trouble of taking the device apart to make sure you could leave the cap loose all the time VS opening it periodically to "bleed" the air out like I do with my radiators!

I've been using PEX tubiing and JG speedfit connectors for the compressed air setup in my shed for over a decade. 8 bar pressure and there's never been a leak. The central heating system in my house is the same, but at much lower pressure. It's good stuff... just a shame that it's not a pretty as copper. Cheers!!

Finally something I can comment on, Heating engineer of 15years here. Main benefit of plastic for me is speed of installation and how it can be fished through awkward places without the need for jointing. Also the fact it is relatively frost proof unlike copper which will often be ok the first time it freezes but bursts the second time round. Iv fitted miles of JG demountable and had very few problems with it. Also there are non demountable fittings which are slimmer and also available in copper! Given the choice though I’d always go for copper, sure it’s a bit slower going in but can look beautiful when fitted well and will last a lifetime. As for the AAV, most of the ones Iv seen the float does act directly on the sealing area unlike yours, is there a big enough annular gap between float and brass for the float to twist out of level and act directly on the seal? Thanks for the videos Clive, please never stop!

I'm in a new build. Must be around 4 1/2 years old and I'm the only person who's ever in it. All the time I've lived here the closed loop system has always had a tiny leak. It was only a few years later when I finally found the leak. It was a 90o 22mm which leaked. I couldn't see anything wrong with it and all of the O rings inside it were absolutely fine so I've no idea why it leaked. It's been changed. To start off with, the pressure ever so slightly went down but recently it's been find.

We have a similar product in the US called SharkBite (think Kleenex) "push" fittings. They are brass body and one-time, permanent installation. Used one in a friend's radiator years ago and it hasn't failed yet. Just checked and it seems they offer a similar product to what you showed, called "ProLock Push" couplings. However, they are only listed for use with PEX. Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather sweat a copper joint if at all possible. There's something satisfying seeing the solder wick into a joint and knowing you (hopefully) have a nice solid connection. Plus, you know... you get to play with FIRE! Thankfully I'm not a plumber, so it's not something I have to worry about often.

Time will tell, copper is good but fails with the wrong water at 50 years or so, flex pex is turned out to be the best so far, easy to fish, minimal 90's, easy to use, low cost. I would be concerned with rigid plastic failing like cpvc in the US, it can become brittle and fail. Certain fumes on outside of pipe can make it fail, high chlorine internal.

♫ Zu klein, Zu groß, Every size fit on this hose, Ram it in, Tighten it up, Turn it out, Bratwurst im dein sauerkraut!♫ *sets fire to pyrotechnic angel wings* See? Half of a Rammstein song is plumbing, the rest is angry German and flammable liquids.

Used the JG push fit plumbing pipe and fittings for replumbing my place 15 years ago. Absolutely zero problems with it, quick and easy to use. However you do need more supporting clips along the length of the pipe than you would with copper. I was slightly nervous about the possibility of mouse attack, but they haven't touched the pipes, even where they have shredded the foam insulation that I used. Go play in the trap ye wee furry feckers.... Some folks have mentioned possible O ring failure over time. I use a lot of O rings in my world, hydraulics, air, water, drive belts ! The ones that fail are the ones exposed to sunlight, should be fine inside a nice dark plumbing fitting, under the floor.