Are Sharkbite fittings effective?

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.

Thanks for all the input. I'll be pulling the trailer home this week. The only thing stopping me now is going to be a reluctance to cut a hole in the trailer to allow me have exterior access. Maybe I'll be able to poke a hole through inside the outside shower or something.

Buy the crimper and do it up. I installed motion activated sprinklers around our raised bed(s) garden and used Pex from the main feed to the garden out to the sprinklers. Using SB push fits would have been slightly easier than using the crimped and quite a bit more expensive; $7.50 for 1 SB push 90 or $7.50 for a 5 pack of crimp 90s. You have to look at tool purchases as an investment and that you are paying for the tool out of what you are saving on labor.
Randy

Flairit doesn't depend on an o ring. My rv is all flairit, and so is my house. They can't leak, and are reuseable, and not very expensive.
There is NEVER a reason to use crimp, except OEM economy, and its all there is for the large pex sizes.

If I recall properly the Shark Bite fittings were originally designed to be used with PEX. Then it was determined that they could be used with a variety of other types of plumbing tubing such as copper.

Several years ago I was refurbishing my rental apartment and had to go to Home Depot to get various lengths of pipe and fittings to reroute the water lines. The plumber on staff turned me on to Shark Bite and I have used them ever since.

They are rated for sealed in wall installation.
They are quick and easy.
They require no special tools, solder, torches, etc.
They can be removed and replaced with a special tool.

I have since learned that some of the biggest plumbing outfits in several major metropolitan areas use them exclusively (and the brand that Lowes sells as well... Gator Bite?).

Yes, they are more expensive than conventional fittings BUT the cost is made up for in the speed of the project and the lack of the need for all the other stuff/tools needed for conventional fittings.

I ave used them to connect existing copper to new PEX, connecting copper to copper and connecting to other types of plastic tubing.

I have used them for both hot water and cold water services.

I even used them to replace the zone valves in a hot water heating system... I attached copper fittings to the valves and mended in the valves to the plumbing with the long slip connector.

They are one of the best things that have come on to the market for DIYers in a VERY long time.

Plumbing contractors like them because it cuts the time on job nearly in half.

If you make a mistake you can remove the fitting and fix the mistake without tossing the fitting.

On my apartment project I temporarily plumbed the water heater in to two units so I had hot water until I could get the second water heater installed. Once that was done I had to merely remove the shark bite fitting, put in an elbow to isolate that heater and then connect up the other one. It took all of ten minutes to reconfigure the lines and hot water was back in service in fifteen!

One of the best things about them is that they can be used in very tight spaces where you might not want to have an open flame or where a crimp tool will not fit.

I have only had the fittings leak a couple of times and when they do the water does not need to be turned off, all you do is press the fittings together more tightly and they seal right up! Copper fittings can be a pain if they leak because the line has to be drained and then the fitting has to be de-soldered (if it can be salvaged), cleaned and re-soldered...chances are that fitting is not useable again any way.

I have installed nearly a hundred of them and have been very impressed with them.

I have no personal experience with it but I have heard they are more tolerant of vibration as they do provide a slight amount of flexibility where a soldered joint is rigid and could break from continued vibration.

Shark bites do work, but to me the jury is out whether they are "permanent" or not.

They depend on a rubber "O" ring as the sealing surface. I have over time seen "O" rings flatten or wear out and not seal well so I would call it as an "easy method TEMPORARY" at best fix.

I have used them but I don't like the feel of them since you can easily "spin" or turn them on the tubing once installed. Makes me nervous having fittings which can move about...

I've used Flair-it, Shark bite and Apollo, all are permanent if you want them to be. First use of Flare-it was about 10 years ago, the Apollo were from 2011 and flair-it this summer. no leaks with any of them. I tried the Apollo on a coldwater pipe that was leaking at the crimp, didn't seal so tried shark-bite and it worked fine. The existing crimp failed and I had to cut it off, it left a scar on the pipe and the Apollo wasn't deep enough to cover the scar and the Shark-Bite did. Apollo is like a Shark-bite but plastic. Shop did a repair while we were in Elhart and they worked fine. They all cost about the same.

We used them to repair a leak on a line for the water heater - worked great and man at the hardware said he had never had a report of them leaking and that's what the plumbers all used.

Used Sharkbite fitting to install a water heater 2 years ago. No leaks. I am using them and PEX for a air line to my shop. #150 on it. No leaks and withthe purchase of a tool (about a buck) you can remove them if you need to

Never had a problem with the sharkbites. If you are going to just do a couple of connections use them. A larger project and it may be worthwhile investing in a crimper so you can use the cheaper crimp on connectors.

They are also useful when you can't access the connector to get a good crimp.