Heating Help

Pex & couplings?

As I start installing the pex in my first floor joist spaces,this will be heating the 1st. floor,. I am using the staple up with transfer plates.
Since the basement ceiling is not going to be finished what about using Sharkbite coupling to maximize my rolls of pex tubing?

No Sharkbites

Hopefully you've had the system designed with a heat loss on the house and know the required lengths you need. Adding more tubing to your rolls may cause problems with flow rates needed to heat the space. And no, use actual pex couplngs made for your pex tubing. 

Caution

I have replaced two 1/2" couplings of another brand (same use/concept) that were used in two different staple up applications this last heating season.

In both cases it seemed the tubing expansion and contraction had caused the o-rings to fail. Fortunately for one of the owners  there was no damage because the the leak was over an unfinished basement and the boiler had a low water cutoff.  The other was not as lucky, he had installed his own tubing and in an effort to save a few dollars on a PEX tool, the leak caused extensive damage to sheetrock and his boiler (no LWC).