Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tell Me About PEX

I got some HDPE IronBender.


Just unloaded a new shipment.







2 inch. 4500 foot rolls.

How much ya need?

So Mike, If you plumb the outhouse, ya can't call it an outhouse anymore.

Is this for the horses?

Dang Jim that looks like work ahead !


Run for the hills !

I only need 7 more rolls to be finished!


Thinking about buying another excavator.

On the fittings, the type that slide in and get 'cinched' down, a 1/2" pipe no longer is a 1/2" pipe because every fitting becomes a choke point. That restricted flow may or may not be an issue depending on the end use of that run.

The fitting that expands the pex, is slid in, then the ring is 'crimped' on, the fitting is not a restriction. 1/2" stays 1/2" of flow.

You own a welder for that stuff?

Fascinating. Not knowing any of this stuff I buried a garden hose between the house and a manifold at the garden made of PVC pieces from Menard's. That was 15-20 years ago and still works fine. (disconnect from the house and open the drain valve on the manifold before freeze-up) Ignorance is bliss.

Yeah, but we went the cheap route.


Its all socket welded.....not butt welded, so we have to buy couplings.


They say the butt welded stuff is better.....but the tool was really expensive and size dependent. My socket welder will do 1.5 and 2 inch.

Few take the effects into consideration. I sure hope Jim is with the lengths he is running.

Them fitting are spendy, they have some portable welders that are't too bad priced but still up there.

That sure is as close to forever pipe a guy can get...

Thats the nice thing about HDPE.


Yes, butt welded is smoother, but the sockets and couplings are full diameter.


Also, all your screwball plumbing bits and pieces come off of T's and transitions.

Line losses are kept to a minimum that way.


They are still quite high, but thats why we buy the heaviest pipe we can.

The welder we use is hand held and heated with an acetylene torch and rosebud tip.

If this is not for drinking I'd use the Black poly irrigation tubing. The stuff is cheap and more forgiving if it does freeze.

Keeping it as straight as you can helps ton's, every bit of radius is a measurable pressure loss.

I have ran miles of that in various sizes up to 8 inch. I'll go down a trench line and straighten it out and dump dirt in to hold it in place.

I've seen them, it does fine, it's not like the big trailer style butt welder is a whole lot faster. You gotta have the little one to get to a lot of fittings anyway.

We have 30,000 feet in the ground already.


The whole system will be over 70,000 feet when we are done.


This last 40,000 some odd feet just got designed into the project this year. Adding another well and a 20,000 gallon cistern.


Later on we will probably add a boost pump station.



Sorry for the Hijack Bender!


I dont mind PEX in a house, but I like other types for direct bury.

I missed it Jim, what is all that line for?

Stock water.

One trouble with the cattle racket, all the money it takes to raise them.

Depends on where you live.... Here in the far north of Louisiana, it's a good idea to use heat tapes, but not really needed. We just put the foam insulation on the outside pipes and they dont freeze. Bury lines 6" in the ground and they are ok. I do have heat tapes on the well pump and lines, but only because they are harder to wrap. Heat tapes are easy. Lots of people just use a light bulb to keep things from freezing.

Again, it depends on where you live.