Copper to CPVC?

chez Curmudgeon has a lotta copper pipe in it, about half got replaced with CPVC when the master bath and laundry room were torn out and redone. I'm wanting to convert the rest to CPVC and add another faucet outside on the garage side (why this wasn't done when the house was built I'll never know). All the plumbing's in a crawl space, if it wasn't I'd never have bought this house!

Anyway, the kitchen and hall bath have new copper in the walls (hooray previous owner) so I want to leave it and join new CPVC. Those Shark Bite fittings are fast but astronomically priced. After seeing what happens to the Buna-N washers in the faucets around here, I also am not sure about the long term life of the O rings in them. I don't mind taking a little longer to do it and I'd really rather not sweat pipes, my track record with that is not good.

So, my question: is there a compression adapter fitting capable of this? I see where people have used standard brass 'olive' type coupling fittings, is this for real? Seems to me it would not seal well on the CPVC side. I was thinking of a brass compression fitting with a NPT on the other side then use standard CPVC glue on type fittings.

Datsun1500 wrote: They make adapters with copper compression on one side and cpvc on the other side for just this purpose

Got a link? I cant seem to find the damn things.

I sold plumbing supplies years ago, so my knowledge might be dated, but I believe there are some cheap adapters that you can sweat on the copper side and glue on the cpvc side. If all else fails, sweat a male copper adapter on and then transition to a female cpvc adapter. The threads should line up, I have seen people do this coming off of water heaters. Shark Bites are cool and ridiculously easy if you are richie-rich.

Edit: You might have better luck at a Ferguson vs a Lowes or Home Depot.

Why cpvc? Sweat fitting on, crimp pex, done.

Looks like its a Nibco fitting. It might work for ya.

1500, that's what I am looking for. It looks like the one side uses a compression fitting on the copper then the other side has a nipple (heh heh heh he said nipple) that glues to the PVC. What brand are they?

By the way: there are a lot of guys on the 'pro' sites who say they see Shark Bites leak after a couple of years.

They dont make CPVC threaded fittings to solvent weld on?

+1 for pex. I used copper crimp rings and brass fittings when I plumbed my house. The joints and valves are all in easy to reach areas. Skip the shark bites and the cpvc.

Gearheadotaku wrote: +1 for pex. I used copper crimp rings and brass fittings when I plumbed my house. The joints and valves are all in easy to reach areas. Skip the shark bites and the cpvc.

If I ever build another house that's probably what I'll do. Since there's a lot of CPVC in mine already I'd rather stick with it.

Datsun1500 wrote: I got them at northeastern supply, the big box stores did not have them. I've also seen copper compression with a female thread, cpvc with a copper female thread and a male/male connecting them. Like this hot linked image What size pipe? I have some 3/4 and some 1 inch shark bites in a bin in the garage. Yours if ya want them

Holy crap. Those things are like $38 apiece.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

Copper is expensive. Brass isn't cheap either. PEX is cheap and fast.

As far as shark-bites go, I piped up my water heater using them a couple of years ago. So far, so good, but I do keep an eye on them...

Datsun1500 wrote: I got them at northeastern supply, the big box stores did not have them. I've also seen copper compression with a female thread, cpvc with a copper female thread and a male/male connecting them. Like this hot linked image What size pipe? I have some 3/4 and some 1 inch shark bites in a bin in the garage. Yours if ya want them

Years ago I used a fitting similar to that on our house. But the copper side was sweat on on the pipe side and the hose barb thread on the other end. Used the brass collar/CPVC fitting on the other. I think I bought them as separate fittings out of the bins at the Depot. I don't remember the fittings being terribly expensive, but that was in 1999 or so.

The whole house has been replumbed with CPVC now.

Best bet is to go into an actual plumbing supply house and explain your situation. They will have what you need better than HD. I know of some plumbers that will use CPVC because it is real cheap. Personally I would never use the stuff. PEX is the way to go and even more specifically Wirsbro. Stay away from any of the Pex that use the metal crimp rings. I'm seeing so many where the ring is corroding and popping. The other downside to the metal ring style is the fittings that connect to them are smaller inside than the pipe, so effectively, all you fittings are one pipe size smaller than what they should be. One a half inch water pipe, you end up with Tees that only have an inside diameter of 3/8"

i've yet to see any sharkbites leak, and i've taken out some pretty old ones. if i had to guess, the ones that leak didn't have the pipes deburred so they damaged the o-rings on the way in.

i tend to only use them to connect pex and copper in accessible locations. they're cheap compared to the fitting above. and those still use a rubber washer like a garden hose for your seal, so take that as you may.

what's wrong with the copper? if i went into a house plumbed with CPVC i'd either not buy, or budget for a complete replumb. i've seen that stuff get brittle over time and snap like a twig if you touch it wrong. if it ain't broke...

C-man, look up Ferguson's in the phone book. That's the pro shop we have around here in the state. Make sure you get the pro shop as they also have a display room wing that doesn't have parts.

Sitting in Crews Chevy right now.

Yeah, I'm going to check out Ferguson. There's one up here somewhere.

The reason I'd like to replace the existing copper is because on the horizontal runs that were taken out the inside of the pipe is eroded to about half thickness. I prefer an ounce of prevention to a pound of cure. I used to not trust CPVC either, but on the installations I'v seen, such as my mom's house which is now ~18 years old, the CPVC still looks like new. I had a bad experience with an older PEX setup, since then the installation methods have been revised and that means I'd not have a problem starting from new with it.

You're smart to do so if that is the case. There was a problem with the Summerville water system that caused similar issues a few years back. I think it was related to sulfur but may be wrong.

Weird one over near the Charleston AFB: several houses developed water leaks all at the same time, the cause was pinholes in the copper water pipes in ring patterns. Some bright boy measured them and it seems the spacing between the rings of pinholes corresponded almost exactly with the wavelength of the big radar out there. Hmmm. Nothing was ever proven...