Technology… not just for computers anymore
October 20, 2009mike Comments OffWhen someone says technology what do you picture? Computers, cellphones, DVDs, whirling gadgets with LED lights and beeping sounds?
Those things are certainly slick, and let me tell you, I love beeping LED lights (except when its the low battery or no signal light on my phone). The thing we forget to think about is technology and its effect on the rest of our lives.
The other day, I for the first time installed a product called PEX piping. For those not familiar PEX stands for crosslinked polyethylene and is the up and coming replacement to copper pipes. Having limited copper experience in the past I looked to an alternative (since I mostly use a blow torch to start things on fire, not to sweat pipe). Let me tell you… PEX is the shit. I’m sorry for the vernacular there, but it was needed to get the point across. First off cost… copper pipe costs about ten times as much as PEX and is only skyrocketing. Next copper pipe typically comes in set lengths that have to be fit together, PEX comes in rolls which can be a hundred feet, even a thousand feet no need for extra fittings (and the cost associated with that). PEX is flexible enough to be fed around things in the walls, but rigid enough to be run from the basement up (often an easier view than a tiny hole in the wall down). It is also flexible enough that there is little need for too many fittings (read: money and time saver). Also no need to “sweat” the pipes meaning no need for a blow torch (some lost fun there, though increased safety), flux, or solder. Just cut the pipe (can even be cut with a utility knife! though not recommended for straight cuts) push on the fitting and ring, crimp, test and go. That simple, not waiting for the solder to cool, wondering if you got enough solder on to seal it, done. You can even get color coded piping so you don’t have to guess which is the hot and which is the cold again.
Now that is a useful improvement of technology. Saves time, money, headache and best of all it sounds really slick when you tell people you put in piping yourself! Which having done copper before, sounds slick as well, but your migraine and the hole you punched through the drywall in frustration will take away some of the slickness!
Happy Plumbing!