[Archived]

They are a bitch to get apart, old Quest Fittings, may be better off just cutting and replacing with Pex and Sharkbite fittings. You’ll hear some say they are easy, not.

[Dick]

Try a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the plastic a bit?

[Marshall]

I use the brass pex fittings with the stainless bands with the crimp tool, Home Depot or Amozon , when you crimp it does not leak or come apart,the picture shows Flair- it fittings they are good but there is to many there

[Roscoeapproved]

I called Jeff Rowe at ETLC who explained how to get the PVC pipe off the Flair-It fittings. It was a combination of “back and forth, wabble-wabble-wabble in a circular motion. As someone posted on FB the first one was the hardest.

The one-way check valve had a little crack in it. I had to go to the hardware store from where the coach is stored (nine mile trip on a state highway) only three times; I thought that was pretty good! The Shawano hardware store is huge; being 40 miles from Green Bay and 45 miles from Appleton and having a large number of vacation homes around a large lake. This guy in the plumbing area said he just restored a 1972 Shasta travel trailer and educated me on Shark-Bite (which I didn’t need). He was familiar with Flair-It. Sold me all the bits and pieces I needed to pressure test the section of plumbing I pulled out so I could find the offending piece.

I can see eventually replacing much of the plumbing in the water bay with Shark-Bite and probably polished copper (its a Liberty Coach). Ready to leave for Road America in the morning!

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Jeff and Lindsay

91 Marathon XL

[Art]

With all the talk about getting rid of push to connect fittings in your air system why would you use sharkbite fittings on your fresh water system? They are the same thing in brass. They still have a rubber o-ring that will fail. Ive been in the building trades for 35 years . Sharkbite and other brands of push to connect fitting have widely used for about 10 years. (Mostly by handyman types and DIY.) We are starting to see leaks and failures in these. Get a Pex crimper and do it right.

[David]

I was wondering how the long term performance of SharkBite has been. I guess we have one man’s opinion!

[Dana]

I have replaced all my plastic on/off valves with sharkbite ones with no issues. I have used many Sharkbite fittings i my house too. The ones in my house are minimum 10yrs old with no leaks.

The old plastic on/off valves in my bus had to be replaced as the hot water side broke on the kitchen and lav sinks as well as the washer. It’s always fun to have water running out if cabinets!!!

[Towson]

Dana, when your house has bounced up and down the road for 10 years do you expect the fittings to remain leak free?

[DON]

The Sharkbites I used in the hot water, cooper plumbing lines were well over 10 years old when I sold the coach. I suspect they are still just fine. With the piping clamped to the walls I am not sure where much movement would take place.

[DON]

Thanks A1 I needed a laugh. Just like blaming Russia for all the fuel increases. Bouncing down the road ehhh.

Every time someone asks me the difference between a Liberty and other converters I bring up their plumbing shortcomings and show them pictures of stuff like this.

Once the copper pipe goes up and you loose sight of it the fun starts.

The picture of the water heater bay is a FUM.

Later

bv

[Jon]

No worries guys. ACME has the cost of the impending class action law suit baked into the price of the fittings. Sharkbite fittings-The next polybutylene pipe.

[Tom]

We’ll see! But I’m a believer in the Shark bites!! Can’t cause anymore headaches than the Ole plastic ones that blew up and washed the interior walls until the pump could be shut off and pressure subsided!

[DON]

Hey Bernie, guess it takes more than ‘Rose’ BS