[Shop-talk] fishing water line

[Karl Vacek]

While I prefer copper for most water lines, if you're ever going to add an 
RO water system and use it to feed the refrigerator, plastic is a better 
choice.  RO water is "hungry" and will react with the copper over time and 
eventually eat through the tubing.

That said, I hooked up our refrigerator with polyethylene as soon as I'd put 
it back in place on new oak floors.  Two days later I noticed that the 
adjacent concrete floor was damp.  The plastic tubing had cracked at a 
fitting and dripped enough to warp the new floor.

I worked with polyethylene tubing on a daily basis for 14 years and never 
saw that before.

They make stainless-braid-covered icemaker lines too, plastic on the inside, 
but the longest I've seen is 10 feet.

Polyethylene, and presumably PEX as well, won't flavor the water a bit.

Karl



> Any pros or cons to copper or to the reinforced flexible pipe?  Does the
> plastic stuff flavor the water?  Should I worry about a leak over my
> finished basement ruining my day.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Phil Nase
> Quakertown, PA
> http://home.comcast.net/~philnasecpa