plumbing with Seatech?

[degreeoff]

Hello,

I have bought a whole lot of tubing to redo all the H20 lines in my Catalina 30, well turns out its all hard wall hard to work with stuff that requires special fittings. My question is of the durability of this system. Do you like it and should I keep it or return it?

thanks

Josh

[Maine Sail]

Seatech is nothing more than re-branded PEX tubing for domestic water. Unfortunately much of it is metric to force you to buy their fittings.

The best thing you can do is to find a local P&H wholesaler who sells domestic PEX tubing and fittings. Use 3/8" not the 1/2" stuff and it will bend and flex considerably easier and route through the boat easier too. Another good thing to do is buy red tube for hot and blue for cold.

Watts and others make quick connect fittings in brass and plastic. You can also buy a crimp tool and do it that way but the quick connects are very, very reliable and can be taken apart if necessary where the crimps can not.

PEX is excellent stuff but the 1/2" in a boat is not necessary for flow at 40 PSI and to hard to route and run compared to the 3/8". The only benefit to 1/2" is that you can buy the fittings and tubing everywhere, including Lowes & Home Depot but 3/8" will usually only be stocked by a P&H wholesaler. Most all P&H wholesalers do cash/retail sales these days.