Are Sharkbite fittings effective?
As some of you may recall I asked a while back about running an external garden hose from my trailer. Here's a link to that topic. Link I received many great responses to my question of where to at...
Forum Discussion
I will be a devil's advocate against Sharkbites and offer this article as food for thought.
Sharkbites are good fittings for stationary plumbing, especially if connecting PVC to PEX, or PEX to brass. However, in an RV where vibrations are normal, that one little O-ring is the only thing keeping the water away from the interior of your RV, and it doesn't take much to nick it, flatten it out, erode it (chlorine does a good job), or otherwise cause it to fail.
Instead, I would take some of the above recommendations. Flair-It fittings are good quality and do not depend on an O-ring. There are fittings that use a clamp (I think by Watts), and the nice thing about those is that regardless of the diameter of the pipe, it only needs one tool. Of course, if one has cash, I've read very good things about Uponor's ProPex system, but the tools are expensive ($750 for the cordless one that automatically rotates the pipe when being expanded, and it requires PEX-a pipe.)
There are plenty of other good fasteners. I'd read around to see which can stand the test of time, especially in an RV.
Sharkbites are good fittings for stationary plumbing, especially if connecting PVC to PEX, or PEX to brass. However, in an RV where vibrations are normal, that one little O-ring is the only thing keeping the water away from the interior of your RV, and it doesn't take much to nick it, flatten it out, erode it (chlorine does a good job), or otherwise cause it to fail.
Instead, I would take some of the above recommendations. Flair-It fittings are good quality and do not depend on an O-ring. There are fittings that use a clamp (I think by Watts), and the nice thing about those is that regardless of the diameter of the pipe, it only needs one tool. Of course, if one has cash, I've read very good things about Uponor's ProPex system, but the tools are expensive ($750 for the cordless one that automatically rotates the pipe when being expanded, and it requires PEX-a pipe.)
There are plenty of other good fasteners. I'd read around to see which can stand the test of time, especially in an RV.
