Bryant Redhawk
Songster
If your house was built in the last 14 years the odds are that you have pvc or cpvc water pipes. Now most are going with PE.
The small amounts that people are so worried about leaching into their water is so insignificant that this fear should be put on the "Urban Legend" list. If you have a drinking water filter (the pitcher type) it is most likely made of plastic, the filters are all encased in plastic. PVC and CPVC have been in use since the late 1950's but really came into heavy use in the 1970's. Poly vinyl chloride is very stable Co Poly Vinal Chloride is very heat resistant which is why it is used for hot water lines, PVC would indeed soften and possibly leach some compounds into the water, as long as the pipe remains rigid there isn't much of a threat of leaching components into the water being carried. Unless that water sat in a section of pipe for a long period of time (months or years) at which point you would have very stagnant water and it might smell a little like plastic, but most likely the odor would be caused by the lack of oxygen in the water.
Cold water lines are usually schedule 40 (thin wall) pvc pipe and Hot water lines are cpvc. The newer PE lines are very nice to work with but more expensive than the pvc/cpvc, the fittings are also more expensive. Mostly it is a matter of preference To my thinking.
Copper lines are traditional, cost far more and are more likely to freeze. The best plumbers use silfloss (silver solder) on water pipe joints, next best is the lead free solders now on the market.
For an easy peasy water nipple system use a discarded toilet tank and float valve. These can be mounted solidly on a wall and don't have to have a pressure regulator inline. Since the tank is ceramic, no worries about plastics there. Just install a neck down coupler and install the piping of your choice to that.
The nipples I've found are designed to be used with plastic pipe, if you try to thread them into a copper line, you will ruin them if you don't thread the hole in the pipe prior to installing the nipples.
The small amounts that people are so worried about leaching into their water is so insignificant that this fear should be put on the "Urban Legend" list. If you have a drinking water filter (the pitcher type) it is most likely made of plastic, the filters are all encased in plastic. PVC and CPVC have been in use since the late 1950's but really came into heavy use in the 1970's. Poly vinyl chloride is very stable Co Poly Vinal Chloride is very heat resistant which is why it is used for hot water lines, PVC would indeed soften and possibly leach some compounds into the water, as long as the pipe remains rigid there isn't much of a threat of leaching components into the water being carried. Unless that water sat in a section of pipe for a long period of time (months or years) at which point you would have very stagnant water and it might smell a little like plastic, but most likely the odor would be caused by the lack of oxygen in the water.
Cold water lines are usually schedule 40 (thin wall) pvc pipe and Hot water lines are cpvc. The newer PE lines are very nice to work with but more expensive than the pvc/cpvc, the fittings are also more expensive. Mostly it is a matter of preference To my thinking.
Copper lines are traditional, cost far more and are more likely to freeze. The best plumbers use silfloss (silver solder) on water pipe joints, next best is the lead free solders now on the market.
For an easy peasy water nipple system use a discarded toilet tank and float valve. These can be mounted solidly on a wall and don't have to have a pressure regulator inline. Since the tank is ceramic, no worries about plastics there. Just install a neck down coupler and install the piping of your choice to that.
The nipples I've found are designed to be used with plastic pipe, if you try to thread them into a copper line, you will ruin them if you don't thread the hole in the pipe prior to installing the nipples.
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