I've been told that red pex had a higher failure rate because of some flaw introduced by the red dye in it. Has anyone heard anything like that? I can't find anything online about it so far.
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Who has told you this? What is the increase in failure rate mentioned? If it's 10%, that could be worrying, if it's 0.01%, well, that's higher, but pretty insignificant...– FreeManCommented Oct 8, 2020 at 12:29
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2I've never heard this and searching comes up empty. It if were true I'm positive there would be a class-action suit against the manufacturers. Lawyers are ever to enterprising about those things.– jwh20Commented Oct 8, 2020 at 13:15
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1I was told by a plumber doing a bathroom. I generally work on my own plumbing but we needed this one inspected so we had to hire someone. He is definitely knowledgable about plumbing but fairly sloppy and scoffed at the notion of using red/blue to denote hot/cold saying, "That's how you know an amateur worked on it". At some point he told me that red pex had a history or failing due to the red dye or temp combined with red dye. My experience is that most things like that are just urban myths that keep getting spread but I thought I would ask around.– xlntechCommented Oct 8, 2020 at 13:21
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Yes, only amateurs color code their Pex piping because unscrupulous "professional" plumbers make it as hard as possible for anyone but the original installer to do repair work, in the hopes of drumming up more business. He probably twists the white Pex to ensure that it's as difficult as possible to follow... Sheesh.– FreeManCommented Oct 8, 2020 at 13:37
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Sounds utterly bogus. The red/blue pex I have is white pex with a thin color coat that has no function other than to color-code it - the pressure is being held by the (much thicker) white pex underneath, and there's no way the red top layer could affect that.– EcnerwalCommented Oct 8, 2020 at 15:37
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1 Answer
It took a couple of years after this post, there is a class action lawsuit, and it explains the alleged mechanism of failure: that the process of applying the color coat involves a heat treatment which damages the pipe: https://www.classaction.org/news/discontinued-red-blue-uponor-pex-piping-plagued-by-cracking-defect-class-action-alleges
