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WHY SPECIFY UPONOR?
BECAUSE NOT ALL PEX F1960 FITTINGS ARE THE SAME Did you know that not all PEX F1960 fittings are the same? There are real differences far beyond just the name on the fitting that can have a significant impact on the buildings you design. Manufacturers and suppliers that claim their fittings are compliant to ASTM F1960 feel that, in their opinion, they meet the standard. However, there is no third-party agency certification to confirm that compliance.
Certification Difference Uponor ProPEX® fittings are a highly engineered product certified by third-party agencies — NSF and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) — to ensure the raw materials, manufacturing process, and resulting product accurately meet the ASTM F1960 standard. The CSA testing and listing includes the Uponor PEX-a pipe, ProPEX expansion rings, and the ProPEX fittings as a complete system. The testing program includes sustained pressure testing, bent-tube pressure testing, excessive temperature and pressure capability testing, and other tests that also include weekly and yearly follow-up audit procedures.
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The Uponor system is highly reliant on the elastic memory of the PEX-a pipe and the unique material properties in its formulation. CSA will only provide a system certification if warranted, and the properties of each of the components are proven to be required to form a fully functional system. In fact, the companies that mold ProPEX EP fittings are partners that are integrated into the codes and product standards, helping ensure the highest-quality product. ProPEX fittings also undergo internal quality testing that extends beyond the ASTM F1960 standard requirements to provide customers with the strongest value proposition and reliance available on the market. “It’s important that engineers and installers are aware there is a real difference in products and to understand the importance of specifying and installing Uponor,” says
Bradfield Craig, director of Marketing at Uponor. “In fact, Uponor testing on generic F1960 fittings has exposed various manufacturing design and quality inconsistencies, and some fittings can’t even pass the ASTM F1960 standard requirements. This is putting projects at considerable risk for failures and potentially voids the associated system/component warranties.”
Identifying ProPEX How can professionals tell if they’re getting Uponor? The easiest way is to look for the Uponor logo on the products. Other indicators include thicker tube stops and thicker sealing barbs on the ProPEX fittings. This is especially important because the thin tube stops on the generic, low-quality F1960 fittings can allow the expanded PEX pipe to extend past the stops and cause leaks. With the CSA system certification, building and plumbing officials, contractors, and other customers will have the confidence knowing the system has been thoroughly tested by CSA to meet the requirements of the National Plumbing Code of Canada (NPCC) and all subsequent provincial plumbing codes. To learn more about the quality and 25-year warranty that accompanies the Uponor system as well as the risks of low-quality F1960 fittings, visit uponor.com/askforuponor.
