You could sue the tubing mfg, but only if you could prove the copper was not suitable for the advertised application.

I'm not aware of copper failing due to normal usage only. Yes freezing, certain types of water will erode copper. But I've yet seen a properly sweated copper pipe or joint fail. My dad's house was built in 1951, no leaks to date. None of my friends or coworkers have ever had issues.

So I disagree with your statement "copper fails all the time".

I don't think I have ever seen or heard of an RV with copper pipes, and I've lived full time in two of them.

To be fair I’ve had a sweat brass ball valve fail this exact same way. Faulty merchandise is always a risk

Was this “evolving” failure of the shark bite a result of USING the shutoff valve?

I ask because, in my home, there was an old,non-functional, water softener. I removed it, made a “loop” with the in and out pipes and sharkbited them. This was, at least, 5 yrs ago and it’s still holding strong.

Maybe the stresses of operating the shutoff valve caused the failure? Just wondering, not criticizing in any way.

Fun fact: it takes very little water for drywall to show signs of a leak. It bulges almost immediately. I've never had a callback of sharkbite connectors. The key is to install EXACTLY ACCORDING TO MANUFACTURER INSTRUCTIONS

I've seen shark bites blow off when houses get struck by lightning. Never seen that with soldered copper or galvanized.

I'm not disagreeing that CPVC can get brittle but you might be thinking of polybutylene pipe. That's the worst plastic pipe and isn't insurable in some places.

Yeah if the rest of their arguments didn't seal it for you that they're an idiot, the "omg ur a shill" comment really locks it in huh

>How dare you want data to back something up, you must be a shill!

Sharkbites may not be perfect but they are way better than cpvc. Nothing is worse than cpvc because it gets brittle and cracks. You should really get it replaced before something bad happens.

Where I live, sharkbites are not allowed to be enclosed in a wall unless covered by an access panel. Even the plumbing supply house will tell you they aren’t permanent solutions. But they are handy as fuck

PEX fittings pressure test

Definitely nailed in, and possibly even glued

I've used dozens of Sharkbite fittings in the past 10+ years and none have failed. During that same timeframe a regular copper fitting in the wall of a bathroom did fail.

For what it's worth I have a new leak coming from within a wall in my 20 year old house. The piping is CPVC so either a glued joint failed or a pipe cracked.

Nothing is 100.00000000% reliable. I can understand being a bit worried by the sharkbite, but the question is more about the failure rate which you can't get from a single failure.

Sorry, I thought you said data, not anecdotes.

Yup, that's what he uses - that blue plastic type tubing and traditional clamps.

That’s not data, that’s anecdotal evidence.

Copper isn’t warrantied at all…sooooooo…😂

I would not trust them in an RV application. I also wouldn't put copper in an RV application. Too much vibration, thinking soft (non metallic) tubing and clamps would be best in most cases.

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Our plumber would have said the same, as long as things are typical. Certain installations require atypical solutions. I am fine with it as long as they cleared it with me prior to installing. Ultimately, it is my choice to accept or reject the proposed solution.

In the case of our butt connectors that a plumber installed, the soldered fittings would not seal and he had two days into the last few fittings.

I'm not advocating for shark bit fittings, but at the end of the day a shutoff valve has to be in an accessible area. You can't close it up in a wall regardless if its a sharkbite or not. A shutoff valve has the potential to go bad, leak, and so on because its a bunch of seals and moving parts. A sweat joint is the way to go if your closing it up in a wall. You should check on your shutoffs once in a while anyway and "exercise" them especially your main shutoff. The last thing you want is a leak and not be able to shutoff the water because of a bad shutoff that wont budge.

I just realized last night that my outdoor faucet is a sharkbite piece. Would you recommend changing it out? I haven't had issue with it, but I also haven't had to use the faucet much since I just bought the house in September.

I mean, the data is pretty clear when you search for joint failure in copper pipe and see what people complain about.
If sharkbite is such a great fitting, why don't they warranty it for more than 25 years? The expected lifespan of a solder joint is 50+.

For my plumbing for our long term house? Yeah I’d like to see data. My aluminum windows that went out in 10 years would like to have a word with my rubber sealed windows.