I just had my entire house replumbed. They aren’t finished with the kitchen and bathroom remodel yet, but the hose bibs work so I can water my yard. A friend mentioned I might get a plastic taste to my water. Tonight I stuck my tongue into the hose stream and YOW…it tasted like I was drinking liquid plastic.
Does this go away after a while? I’m getting a refrigerator with a filter for drinking water…will that help?
There are different types of plastic used in plumbing now. I’ve noticed a lot of the homes around here use pex tubing and do have a plastic taste. I think it goes away but I’m not sure, maybe we just get used to it but there is definitely a taste there. Homes using PVC don’t seem to have as much of an issue with it IME.
When I googled it, I didn’t get a definitive answer, although many sites mentioned PVC vs. PEX.
I’m not sure what I have. The pipes have a lot of writing on them, but none of the letters spell out either PVC or PEX and I didn’t ask. The contractor’s invoice didn’t specify. I’m sure I can find out, and it certainly makes a difference, but I thought I’d ask others’ experiences, and I would want to hear about both PVC and PEX anyway.
Before I bought my house from my friend, he had plastic plumbing put in. I’m not sure, but I think it’s PVC. I don’t taste plastic. He had the plumbing put in a year or more before I bought the house, and the water here is excellent.
Is the pipe rigid or flexible? Are the joints glued? What color is the pipe? What is the writing on the pipe say?
give us some info and somebody here can ID the pipe.
We had PVC in our old house. Yes, the taste goes away after a while, but if you let things sit for a while (as, for example, when you’re away for two weeks on vacation), you’ll taste it again for a bit. The trick, we found, was to keep water running through the system. This isn’t normally a problem with kitchen and bathroom taps, because you use them a lot. But if you’ve been away for a while, you should let the water run for a while through the taps you plan to drink from, before you actually do; and then you won’t notice it.
What about that red & blue flexible stuff that won’t burst when frozen? Anyone had experience with it?
That’s PEX tubing. Some of it does taste like plastic but it depends on the manufacturer too. The only thing I know about that stuff relates to using it in a hydronic system, i.e., water boiler for your home heating system, in-floor heating. This surprised me when I heard it and still does but there’s a special type of PEX to use for hydronics: sample here.
Do I understand you correctly that you got the taste from drinking from a garden hose? That will always have a taste to it.
I just had a new line run to my house from the street. It was done with a pex material. I can’t taste anything from it although I did flush it because they got dirt in the line.
Sun heated water hose is a fine way to have horrible water. I doubt you had a potable water supply hose sold for RV’s either.
That’s a really good point. These are new hoses, plus I never have tasted garden hose water since I was ten.
Once the sinks are in I’ll taste it from the taps and see what that tastes like.
PEX rocks. PVC water lines are good, but not as good as PEX. Both are more reliable and certainly easier to install. I retrofitted a house with PEX lines through the attic when the copper pipes in the slab broke in two places. I couldn’t have done it with copper (I tried). PEX and sharkbite connectors… plumbing heaven.
I never had a plastic taste to the water-that should be investigated. Since it came from hose bibs, I assume that the water stayed in the line for a long time. Flush the line, leave the water sit in the line for say 24 hrs, and see if there is a taste. If so, I would talk to the installer and make sure you know what kind of line was installed.
PEX.
PEX rocks. wouldn’t use anything else.
guess I was repeating myself. but it still is great!
I taste rust, copper, and lead in other people’s homes. But not plastic.
Maybe, but that my friend is the taste of summer vacation.
Don’t shark connectors have o-rings in them?
For starters, I’m a licensed plumbing contractor, and I’ve installed miles & miles of PEX and CPVC pipe.
If your whole house was replumbed, it’s either PEX or CPVC. CPVC is different than PVC in that it is rated for use in hot water piping as well as cold water piping. PVC piping may not be installed in the water lines within a dwelling.
CPVC piping will definitely give a plastic taste for a while when the pipes are new. It may also give off the taste of the glue as well. Any time I replumb a home in CPVC, I always recommend bottled or filtered water for a month or so. Just for the taste factor, it’s not palatable IMO.
PEX can also leave a bit of a plastic taste, but MUCH less than other piping systems. It will go away over time also. Some of it is chemicals from the extrusion process, some is stuff picked up in shipping & handling, some is just plastic pipe taste.
To tell the difference between CPVC and PEX, simply look at the pipe. CPVC will be assembled with glued fittings and normally with a yellow glue. It may also use an orange glue, but most plumbers are too lazy to use the orange glue since you have to use primer before the orange glue, and the yellow glue is a one-step glue. PEX piping is either clear or colored red (hot water) and blue (cold water). They’re all the same stuff. There’s no difference between the red & blue piping, so if they switch it, don’t worry.
PEX piping & CPVC piping both have advantages and disadvantages. PEX is typically a quieter system, less prone to freezing, easier to install in an existing home, cleaner to install (no glue required), and is flexible. CPVC is cheaper and since the fittings go on the outside of the pipe, there is less pressure drop across each fitting. The inside diameter of the pipe is bigger as well, since the pipe wall is thinner than PEX.
If I were building a new home, I would install CPVC. If I were retrofitting a home, I’d use PEX.