Copper Pipe and quick connectors, Any Good?

[ztirffritz]

I think that he is referring to 'Sharkbite' fittings. They look like this:
http://www.sharkbite.com/




They work REALLY well on PEX tubing and they are supposed to work on copper too. They are like a Chinese Finger Cuff in the way that they work. When you feed the tube in it gets tighter and seals around the tube. You pull back on it a bit and some tiny barbs grip the pipe. I've used them in my home on PEX tubing and on one or two locations where it was impossible to sweat the copper tubing. The upshot is that it allows you to join PEX tubing to copper. I asked around quite a bit before using them because they seemed too good to be true. Several plumbers, the staff at Home Depot and Hometown Ace Hardware all said that they are fantastic. You can also undo the union using a little plastic clip that releases the fitting. Without that plastic clip though, they are REALLY strong, almost impossible to pull apart without permanently damaging the pipe.

If you have the room to sweat the fittings, I'd do that, but if it is a tight fit, or something that you might want to remove later, try the sharkbite fittings.

[Fred_Also]

Is this what he is using?

From Wikipedia:

Crimped or pressed connections

Crimped or pressed connections use special copper fittings which are permanently attached to rigid copper tubing with a powered crimper. The special fittings, manufactured with sealant already inside, slide over the tubing to be connected. Thousands of pounds-force per square inch of pressure are used to deform the fitting and compress the sealant against the inner copper tubing, creating a water tight seal. The advantages of this method are that it should last as long as the tubing, it takes less time to complete than other methods, it is cleaner in both appearance and the materials used to make the connection and no open flame is used during the connection process. The disadvantages are that the fittings used are harder to find and cost significantly more than sweat type fittings.

Fred Also

[macphanatic]

I've used them on PEX without issue. I would be leery to use them on old copper pipe. If it's out of round or softer than newer copper, you might not get a good seal.

[M>B>]

I would only use compression fittings on the last end of an all sweated copper system. That that was outside of interior walls, like risers to the fixtures. Such as something similar to this...