What type water pipe do I have?

Does anyone know what type water pipe was used in 2008 Winnebago Journey 39Z? We had a cracked fitting and went to Lowes to find something to repair it with. We purchased & repaired it with SharkBite fittings. Worked well, but afterwards we found that SharkBite fittings come with pipe specific collars. The Lowes person said the description of my pipe sounded like Quest but it was normally gray in color. Our factory fittings have screw on nut that tightens down on a cone or flare type collar inserted into the pipe. I described mine as a whiteish clear color. Probably more white than clear. I am thinking Quest might be polybutylene and SharkBite web site says they recommend Gray collars for polybutylene and not the Tan collars but does not say why or what will happen if the wrong one is used. I remember a coupling we used had gray on one end and tan on the other.

Just don't want to have created a future problem.

Quest is a brand of fitting, not a type. The gray tubing is polybutylene, and Quest was a widely used brand of fittings for it.

What type does Sharkbite say the tan collar is for? Pex?  Or maybe copper (metal) tubing?  Pex is usually a solid color, often blue (for cold water) or red (for hot water), but can be made in most any color.

Did you use any collar with the Sharkbite?  If not, and the fitting doesn't leak (don't be afraid to push/pull on it to test), I wouldn't worry.

A call to Winnebago Customer Service should get you a definitive answer.

To answer the question  of what type of pipes you have. I am sure it is PEX
Crosslinked polyethylene.  It is translucent  and may have red or blue printing on it. The colors don't really mean there's a difference, it's just to help differentiate between hot and cold for the convenience of the installer.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

Quest is a brand of fitting, not a type. The gray tubing is polybutylene, and Quest was a widely used brand of fittings for it.

What type does Sharkbite say the tan collar is for? Pex?  Or maybe copper (metal) tubing?  Pex is usually a solid color, often blue (for cold water) or red (for hot water), but can be made in most any color.

Did you use any collar with the Sharkbite?  If not, and the fitting doesn't leak (don't be afraid to push/pull on it to test), I wouldn't worry.

A call to Winnebago Customer Service should get you a definitive answer.

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SharkBite is a brass fitting with the colored collar's (piece of plastic inside the brass fitting) that you push the pipe over. Nothing to tighten. Just push it in and you are done. If you want to get it out, you have to have a special tool to push in over the pipe (I think) to release it.
SharkBite says the tan collar is for use with Copper, PEX, CPVC or PE-RT.    Gray is for use with polybutylene.
I think we read online that polybutylene was not recommended for water piping as of maybe the late 90's. Maybe something to do with city water reacting with the pipe over time.

We installed, checked for leaks, and closed it up, thinking all was well. Later looked on the SharkBite webside and saw where they do not recommend using a tan collar with polybutylene, but they did not say why.

We have an email into winnebago asking what our pipe is, and are waiting on the answer.

ChasA said:

To answer the question  of what type of pipes you have. I am sure it is PEX
Crosslinked polyethylene.  It is translucent  and may have red or blue printing on it. The colors don't really mean there's a difference, it's just to help differentiate between hot and cold for the convenience of the installer.

Click to expand...

OK, I hope we do have PEX. In any case, we may have done something I wish that I had not, because the fittings we used, 2 were Tan and 1 was gray which makes me think I did something not according to the book.

We used a Sharkbite fitting to fix a cracked screw on fitting in my son's 2000 class C. It is a very impressive  product.  We were fixing a white colored pipe that might have been polybutylene. Polybutylene fittings would crack, especially on the hot water side. It survived a 4800 mile cross country trip! 

I never have figured out what kind of plumbing tube and fittings Winnebago uses - I've bought those parts when we're in Forest City for the Grand National Rally.

I'm familiar with the collars, since my entire house (not RV) had polybutylele tubing which I have repaired numerous times and have now mostly converted to PEX.  I don't use Sharkbite brand, but I do use push-to-fit connectors extensively (mostly Blue Hawk brand) and they use adapter collars too. It's basically to handle slight differences in tube diameters so that they seal securely against the o-rings in the fitting.  If you can wiggle the fittings without getting any seeprage from the joint, I think you can be confident you made a solid seal.

I would think that a 2008 RV probably has PEX tubing, but Winnebago can verify that. PEX isn't the only modern tubing used for potable water, just the most common. There are several PVC-based compounds used to make vinyl tubing and they are typically clear or grayish.

My 2013 uses a white type tubing - I don't think it is PEX.  My last 5er had PEX and it was all blue and red.

Pex is easily colored when made, so it's handy to use red & blue colors for hot & cold water. No requirement to do so, though, and Pex can be made in most any color.  Common PEX tubing colors are "natural" (hazy clear, unpigmented), white, black, red and blue.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

Pex is easily colored when made, so it's handy to use red & blue colors for hot & cold water. No requirement to do so, though, and Pex can be made in most any color.  Common PEX tubing colors are "natural" (hazy clear, unpigmented), white, black, red and blue.

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I believe Hazy Clear is a better definition of mine than what we described it as, above.

Maybe my Winnebago is PEX then, I don't know. 
ON EDIT
I guess when I look up my parts list, they use it all on my model

vinyl
vinyl reinforced
polybutyl
PEX red
PEX blue

Neal - here is a link to your 2008 Journey 39Z water/sewer system (scroll down table of contents and select) and it has several pages of fitting descriptions for every fitting in your coach along with diagrams of where they are.  Might help.

http://www.winnebagoind.com/service/wincd/2008/8wkp39z.pdf

Mile High said:

Neal - here is a link to your 2008 Journey 39Z water/sewer system (scroll down table of contents and select) and it has several pages of fitting descriptions for every fitting in your coach along with diagrams of where they are.  Might help.

http://www.winnebagoind.com/service/wincd/2008/8wkp39z.pdf

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link.
A lot of information here.
Looks like most of the 1/2" is PEX.