Licensed plumbers and sharkbite fittings hurt me. I thought my comment was obvious.

So much property damage caused by these dogshit fittings. Defrauded customers paying thousands for 'skilled labor'.

My neighbor does RV repro and swears that Sharkbites are a guaranteed leak in the future. It's not hard at all to do regular clamps, do that.

Copper elbows are the shittiest. Always bursting and fucking up and shit. I try to clamp elbows down but they are always a PITA.

Do you think the quality of the tubing is important with the sharkbites?

I used Sharkbite fittings when redoing my water filter for the entire house. They were just easier to do vs sweating those fittings. The filter is in my standup area of the crawlspace, and if a leak happens it will not hurt anything. I hear horror stories about Sharkbite failings, but I agree they need to be in accessible areas and not hidden behind walls. Those I would only do sweat fittings for peace of mind. Anything can fail, but Sharkbite are not as effective as sweat fittings.

How so? Shark bite's website makes reference to PEX pipes and PEX fittings everywhere...

No, but I’ve seen more copper failure than shark bite in my life.

I'm not trying to be a twat but a lot of it lies in installation. I would believe that sweated joints are more reliable than a Sharkbite. But I've really seen a lot of shitty welds that leak. Sharkbites also need to be installed properly, and Sharkbite failures are all installation error and not mechanical failure. The pipe was deburred or pushed in far enough.

I've always been against PEX v. copper pipes but apparently PEX is better! The original fittings were crap but the new ones are apparently very reliable and the PEX is less likely to burst when frozen.

I await your data with bated breath.

Drywall is easy to repair and replace. When you notice a leak, you immediately cut out a hole and fix the issue. Then you patch, texture and paint. Don't be obtuse. There is no such thing as forever with anything.

Thank you. What tubing did you use? PEX?

One of my old coworkers lived in a whole neighborhood where the builders ran the main supply lines for every house under the living room slab, some sort of questionable plastic line (I don't remember what kind), and the whole neighborhood basically had all their main supply lines burst under their living rooms over about a two-year period.

My point is never underestimate the corners builders will cut to save like $50 or whatever even when they're building an entire house.

Ok, show this data then?

Pardon me for having an open mind until I actually see some data proving otherwise. I don't live life on the subjective opinions of others.

Fuck people seem to take such personal offense over their precious "soldered fittings" here.

And LOL at the "you represent sharkbite" comment, good one. What a stupid comment, would be like me saying you represent big copper.

Shark bites and pex are very different.

I know it's anecdotal, but my new house was plumbed almost entirely with Pex pipes and push-fit fittings 15 years ago.

In that time, the only thing that has failed is the jointing on the copper shower riser assembly.

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Minor, compared to actual sheathing, but sure. There are other options to using drywall as your shear provider. I'm just thinking of the convenience vs. practicality.

Ok, the data shows that we still get more complaints about sharkbite failures now than we do about soldered joints over the last 100 years and sharkbite is still relatively new.

You sound like you represent sharkbite but are posting from a burner account my guy.
Sharkbites fail at the joint, properly soldered joints don't fail much, usually the pipe will fail first.

I'm not sure why you need a report to tell you "yep, turns out this is worse than literally melting metal into the shape you want it". Who knew?

It's the nature of the beast, and everyone knows it, which is why here and elsewhere everyone says "don't put it behind drywall".

A while back I repaired a leaking connection on my daughter's shower using sharkbite and closed up the wall and retiled. Was super pleased to find how easy these type of fitting are. Since then, I'm hearing a lot of anecdotal info about their unreliability including from plumbers. I now have this nagging worry.

I've never had any luck with sharkbites. I attempted to a use a few all the way back in 2011 and more than half leaked during the 24 hour pressure test. I have heard that the early sharkbites were prone to leaking.

Either the products are lacking or I was not applying them correctly. Either way, that's a problem.

I've only had one soldered joint ever leak. just my two cents.

Remove all the old sealant, clean up the surfaces as best you can, use a sealant removing product if need be. Reapply new sealant. Don't cheap out on the stuff, and if you need a plain white one, consider a mould resistant version. Applying it is a dark art, as others have suggested, watch some YouTube videos and then maybe practice on a scrap of wood to get a feel. Good luck!

Drywall does give you some racking resistance though.

Heck, I fell in love with PEX for remodeling my old house, but I've gone the extra mile to not have PEX fittings/rings inside a wall. And they seem much more reliable than Shark Bites with their moving parts and seals.

If you live in the US and your supply lines are PVC I've got some serious questions about the plumber who did the work.