Nowadays the market offers a great variety of plumbing materials for the installation of water supply. On what to look for if you decided to change the pipes in the toilet and bathtub? We will try to assess the pros and cons different materials. Steel pipelines. Steel is currently the most ephemeral material due to exposure to corrosion. Also the quality of current produced by the pipe rolled leaves much to be desired. Not rare cases where the metal is rotting in the weld zone after 3-5 years, which, of course, is unacceptable, especially if you have high quality finish and will have to partially disassemble the tiles when replacing tubes. Welding steel pipes – quite time-consuming process that is not for the better effect on the overall cost of repairs.
Perhaps the only advantage of steel pipes that they can withstand heavy external loads, in case you accidentally step on pipe for example. But this advantage is highly questionable, especially in light of the shortcomings. Metal pipes. For the installation of plastic pipes do not require any special equipment, quick and easy assembly, the tube can be bend arms at random, it is easy to hide in a small box. The disadvantages of plastic pipes is the fact that they are going to threaded connections, but it is not reliable. Requires regular 'lift' couplings and nuts accordingly can not hide the pipes in the wall.
Polypropylene tubes. Polypropylene is not affected by corrosion, the joints soldered, providing the most reliable connection, the pipe can be hidden in walls and more to do with them. Welding of polypropylene pipes produced by a special device that does not require special skills and qualifications, it greatly reduces the cost of the work. In addition, polypropylene pipes themselves are the cheapest material for water systems. Copper pipe solder with oxy-acetylene or air-propane torch. Soldering copper requires a high skill of the welder to the same pipes themselves are 3-4 times plastic is more expensive counterparts. The only advantage of copper pipes is that they do not rot, but it's the same property is inherent in polypropylene and PVC at a much lower price.