Should I keep my stainless steel plumbing?
Question:Apparently, the house we just moved into was repiped for some odd reason with stainless steel plumbing (yes stainless not galvanized or copper.) I have just replaced my bath tub and opened the wall and the new fixture is leaking. A plumber friend of mine has suggested replacing the entire section in the wall with copper. Should I keep the stainless or go with the suggestion?
Answers:
Unless you just want to spend the money, keep the stainless. It is there already and after the repair you shouldn't have to worry about it. Copper on the other hand is great, but you have to soldier it in and then, unless you repipe the entire house, have to join the copper to the stainless. When you join to dissimiliar metal types you have a coupling that could go bad in a few years.
You want to avoid any couplings that are hidden/ hard to reach at all costs. They start to leak and or worse fail then you will have a miserable time getting at them.
Even PVC/ CPVC has its limitations.
Good luck.
keep the stainless!! unless the plumber installs di-electric fittings at joints you will get corrosion due to electrolisis between dissimilar metals.
way the price of copper and stainless is now a days...i would replace with cvpc instead..simple alternative and cost is alot cheaper
stainless steel piping was used years ago because of the shortage of copper back then. nowdays we would replace what you want with copper. either way , you will need to us a compression fitting to connect it, whether it be in copper or plastic.
good luck
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