So, I have a 50' buried water supply line from my meter to house that is choked from rust (70 years old). I am going to run a new parallel line and trying to choose the material. Seems like PEX B is probably my best option with a copper or galvanized stub up at the house? Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Where do you live? How deep will it be buried?

PVC is unheard of in the Midwest and New England. Copper is worth the cost to not have multiple burst pipes each year. If you're in the Gulf Coast, you can probably use PVC.

I personally think Pex is the cat's pajamas, but it requires Sharkbite or Pex connectors which are more expensive than PVC. It can withstand moderate freezing, you can run it in 100' sections, and it's flexible.

I am in southeast Texas. I guess PVC would be the cheapest. I just thought PEX might be a more suitable choice for a main water line since it supposedly doesn't leach anything and is much cheaper than copper.

I think Pex is the best choice for a lot of reasons if you're ok with the slightly higher cost. If you were in Kansas City or Rochester NY then the answer can't ever be PVC

Thanks!

My 3/4" copper main line broke a couple years ago when a tree root grew up under it. Plumber replaced with 1" PEX from the meter to the house inlet shutoff valve.

Seems like a no-brainer upgrade, especially if you can plan it out and aren't dealing with a swamp yard and wife complaining that the water to the house is shut off.

If this is the main line, I'd spring for the PEX tool that is the compression fitting vs. the crimp tool. The compression is the original tool and is supposedly the 'better' option. Would hate to have a leak in a few years from a bad crimp and have to dig up the line.

~egon

Too bad you can't rent one of these and pull it with a truck

https://www.hammerheadshop.com/shop/lateralpipebursting/waterservices/waterlineslitters-kits/waterline-slitter-kit/

I would do pex, but I would not use any shark bite fittings underground

Agree with Egon.
Run PEX but I would not use the metalic compression fitting under ground as I'd be concerned about corrosion. Bite the bullet and buy the right tool for the job and do it right. Your other option would simply be to do all of the digging and just have a plumber come run it. This option would probably be roughly the same cost of you buying everything. He'll get the pipe cheaper and have the tools, but even for a 30 min job his time to and from and on site will run the bill up.

50'….Im a PVC fan. We've buried thousands of feet of PVC to feed my pens and garden. We got 20' sections. I've had pvc break from being driven on or horses ripping things up but I've never in 40 years had a welded joint fail in any capacity.

I do like the idea of single pex runs with no joints but that's only because it requires metallic fittings that would be buried. I never like metallic "things" buried.

Either way, I don't think you'll have much issue in your lifetime ones you install either.

We used to use plastic welding gear for buried lines at the refinery. If you can hot weld pex with the right irons, that would be nice. I'd probably go that route if I could.

Exactly what I did. Tool is pricey but worth having for sure. Makes plumbing connections easy.

Dr. Doctor said:

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If this is the main line, I'd spring for the PEX tool that is the compression fitting vs. the crimp tool. The compression is the original tool and is supposedly the 'better' option. Would hate to have a leak in a few years from a bad crimp and have to dig up the line.

~egon

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Amen. Only go with crimp rings if you don't have enough space for to use a compression tool.

I'd go with Sch. 80 PVC first, PEX second.

You can coat the fittings to provide corrosion protection. SE Texas has slightly acidic soils and will eventually corrode most metals. Polywrap or even using an epoxy type spray coating out of a can will go a long way.

What type of pex line are you using?

I ended up going with CPVC due to cost. I wasn't sure PVC would pass IPC 2021 for my city permit. I almost went with PEX, but read it may be a little more suspect in terms of leaching chemicals.