Stainless Steel PEX Crimp Fittings & Valves

PEX fittings continue to grow in popularity and we are excited to offer stainless steel PEX crimp fittings and valves! In this webinar we dive into the fittings and valves, the benefits of stainless steel and our QA practices to ensure the ongoing quality of these products.

Check out the blogs that were referenced during the webinar:

We welcome any feedback about this webinar or suggestions for future webinars.

Transcript

Hey everyone and welcome to our webinar on stainless steel PEX crimp fittings and valves. Thank you for joining us today!

I’m Risa Bedard, the marketing supervisor here at Boshart Industries. Today, I’m joined by, Steve Hudson, our Quality Assurance Manager and Paul Erb, our Research and Development Manager. They will help answer your questions at the end of the webinar.

During the presentation, feel free to type out any questions that you have. We’ll do our best to answer all questions at the end of the presentation and if there are any questions that we can’t get to, we’ll reach out following the webinar.

If you want to type out a question, look for the side bar on the right-hand side of your screen. Then, click on the button that looks like an arrow in a box . This will open a menu with a question box as shown on the slide. You can type out your questions there and we’ll be able to see them. Please note the slide number if you’re referencing a specific slide. The slide numbers are displayed on the bottom left-hand corner of each slide.

Overview

In today’s webinar we are going to start with the PEX crimp options that are available before covering our stainless steel PEX crimp option. Then we will look at our QA practices, go over some helpful information and answer your questions. Let’s get started!

PEX fittings continue to grow in popularity so before we dive into our fittings I want to take a quick look at the market.

PEX Fittings on the Market

On the market you can find poly and brass PEX fittings. In addition to that Boshart Industries is offering stainless steel PEX Crimp fittings and valves as a superior option for your PEX installation.

As you may know we started receiving shipments of the new fittings and valves. We’re very excited about them so let’s dive in and learn more about them.

Boshart's PEX Fittings

Boshart Industries is first to the market to offer full stainless steel PEX crimp fittings that are cUPC certified to NSF/ANSI 61 & 372, ensuring they do not contain lead or other toxins making them safe for potable water.

The chemical compatibility and superior corrosion resistance of these 304 SS fittings make them suitable for plumbing, hydronic heating and a wide range of specialized applications.

Our fittings have a temperature rating up to 400°F and a pressure rating of 200 PSI. Our valves have a temperature rating from -40°F to 200°F and a pressure rating of 600 PSI CWP. CWP stands for cold working pressure an indication of the pressure rating for valves at a temperature range of up to 100°F.

Although the ratings vary between the valves and fittings, the limiting factor for both system pressure and temperature will be the rating on the PEX pipe, be sure to stay within the pipe manufactures published rating.

Although the ratings vary between the valves and fittings, the limiting factor for both system pressure and temperature will be the rating on the PEX pipe, be sure to stay within the pipe manufactures published rating.

Two methods are used to manufacture our stainless steel PEX crimp fittings. The tees, couplings, male and female adapters, plugs and drop ear elbows are made though the investment cast process while the elbows are formed from tube.

We offer all of these fittings in sizes ½” ¾” and 1” as well as reducing tees that includes a 3/8” branch.

Along with our regular coupling, we have a transition coupling available. This transition coupling is for polybutylene pipe and comes as a kit with the crimp rings that are needed for the installation.

As shown in the picture the rings are colour coded to ensure the correct ring is used on the correct side. The black ring is for the polybutylene pipe and the copper ring is for the PEX pipe.

In addition to our fittings, Boshart Industries offers ball valves to complete your PEX system installation. These valves are available in ½”, ¾” and 1” sizes.

PEX Ball Valves

This slide gives a full breakdown of all the components that make up the ball valves as well as the materials they are made from.

The body, handle and all internal components that come into contact with water are made from stainless steel.

These stainless steel PEX ball valves have a blowout proof stem. This means that the stem is inserted from the inside of the valve body and has a larger flange at the bottom then the hole in the valve body. Therefore, it is impossible for the system pressure to blow out the stem.

PEX pipe is fastened to these PEX fittings and valves by using one of two options. Boshart Industries offers both copper crimp rings and stainless steel pinch clamps for fastening the pipe to the fittings. Each system uses a special tool to create a water tight seal.

Both of these fastening options work with ASTM F1807 metal fittings such as stainless and brass, as well as ASTM F2159 poly fittings.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel has quickly gained popularity for it’s high corrosion resistance making it suitable for all applications.

304 grade SS has a set tolerance range for each of the elements in the alloys composition making it consistent from one supplier to the next. This chart shows the chemical composition as per the Nickel Development Institute Handbook Table 8.

Brass is cheaper, however No-Lead brass, which is acceptable for potable water, is becoming similar in price to stainless steel.

Stainless steel does not contain zinc and therefore is not susceptible to dezincification like brass.

Dezincification removes zinc from brass fittings leaving behind a porous, copper-rich structure that has little mechanical strength. The fitting or valve may exhibit water weeping through the fitting or valve body. Brass alloys that have a zinc content of over 15%, are susceptible to this and referred to as yellow brass alloys.

Conditions that cause dezincification, and the rate of it, can vary depending on a wide range of water quality factors, and often is related to specific regions of the country.

Also, The quality and properties of brass can differ between suppliers depending on the alloy selected.

Stainless steel is stronger and more durable than brass and poly. We conducted a bending stress test on all three materials to compare their durability. The photos show the damage to the different materials when subjected to a force load in a tensile testing machine.

The stainless steel and poly both bent but did not break whereas the brass fitting broke.

As you can see, the stainless steel elbow reached 240 lbs force, significantly more than brass and poly.

PEX Elbows

The stainless steel elbow is formed tube as mentioned earlier, creating a sweep bend which has less friction loss.

Brass elbows have a sharp 90 degree corner that creates more friction as fluid makes the turn.

Poly fittings manufactured to ASTM F2159 have a reduced bore, due to requiring a thicker wall for strength. 3/8" & ½" poly fitting require a wall that is 2 times thicker than metal fittings, while ¾" and 1" poly fitting are over 2.5 times thicker.

The heavier wall reduces the flow passage and in turn increases friction loss. You will realize better flow in your system when using 304 Stainless Steel PEX fittings.

Typical warranty on PEX fittings range up to 25 years. Boshart stainless steel PEX crimp fittings have a 30 year warranty. When used and installed correctly, stainless steel PEX fittings have a very long life.

Just like with all our products Quality assurance is very important.

Quality Assurance Practices

Let’s take a look at our QA practices that have been put in place to ensure the ongoing quality of our stainless steel PEX crimp fittings and valves.

There are inspections that are done for the stainless steel PEX crimp fittings including scanning the barcodes, a go/no-go test and verifying the material using an alloy analyzer.

When the product arrives, the QA inspector will scan a sample of master case barcodes, as well as samples of bags inside to make sure all the barcodes scan.

The next thing they will do is a go/No-go test to ensure the barbs meet the ASTM standard they are manufactured to. This test uses a gauge with two holes on opposite sides to test the OD of the barbs.

Steve is demonstrating this in the pictures.

On the go side, the fitting slides all the way in ensuring that the OD is not too big. On the No Go side the fitting does not fit into the hole indicating that the OD is not too small.

If the fitting does not enter the go side, or enters the no go side the barbs do not meet the ASTM standard.

The final item on the inspection checklist is to check the Alloy to ensure that it is 304 Stainless Steel. Once the scan is complete the screen will indicate if it is within the threshold or not. In this case you can see that it is indeed 304 Stainless Steel.

Just before we get to your questions, we want to provide some helpful information.

Fittings are packed in bags as shown on the left and boxes as shown on the right. All of our Stainless Steel PEX Crimp fittings need to be ordered in bag quantities of 25, the ball valves can be ordered individually.

Check out our website or catalog to get a full listing of all box quantities.

The team has done a fantastic job putting together instructions for installing and removing crimp rings and pinch clamps. When removed correctly, and the fitting is in good shape, it can be reused!

Check out the blogs on BoshartU for the step by step processes.

We have put together numerous materials to help promote our premium stainless steel PEX crimp fittings and valves. These include counter displays, blogs, catalog pages and sell sheets.

Our website has the most up to date information including a page dedicated to the stainless steel PEX fittings. The website has our catalog pages and technical sheets available for download.

We will now take some time to answer questions.

Conclusion

That is the end of today’s presentation. Visit our BoshartU blog where we offer free educational content. It’s a great way to learn more about our products and be sure to subscribe to receive new content.

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Thank you again for joining us today. Check out our website boshart.com to learn more about our products. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Have further questions about this subject?

Head over to Boshart's Knowledge Base: technical product information, guidelines, and more.

Ball Valves Stainless Steel PEX Crimp Fittings & Valves - Webinar