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My question is whether I should completely cut out and replace a PEX B copper crimp connection to a barbed 1/4 shut off valve (for toilet water supply). I didn’t have a lot of pipe length to work with and I got the crimp ring on two of the barbs but not the first one. I pressure tested, and everything is working fine so I would rather leave it, unless I am taking an enormous risk.

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  • This is entirely a matter of opinion and risk tolerance, so off topic. My $.02 are that if it isn't leaking and doesn't feel loose, it's probably just fine. Barbed fittings don't need to be perfect to work perfectly well.
    – isherwood
    May 25 at 18:13

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It's not just the ring, the valve isn't pushed home in the pipe. And this is a toilet, where the valve does get some use whenever the flapper gets gunked up or the chain gets tangled up or whatever. And there isn't a copper stubout so I'm guessing that bit of pex is just crimped loosely onto an L or a T and flapping around inside the wall. So operation of the valve is going to stress your poor crimp more than usual.

If it was just one of those things I wouldn't have a strong opinion. But you should cut open the wall, install a copper stubout, firmly fixed to a block, cut the new stubout to the right length, and use a compression or sharkbite valve that can easily be replaced in 20 years when it fails. And a pretty escutcheon. Ya, it's some drywall work too.

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