I'm redoing some pipework, and contesting between PEX and the mapress stainless steel fittings.
Cost is roughly the same (at the diameters I'm using (28mm primarily, but a short run of 35mm from the mains), pex pipe fitting are astronomically expensive - and difficult to find in Switzerland, so would need to order from Germany or UK).
Thoughts? PEX has the advantage of being frost proof, while stainless has decades of evidence that it's pretty reliable (and I have a mapress crimp to hand, while for pex I would need to borrow some TH jaws... which isn't an issue, but would take time to get them sent over).
Any idea where one can source PEX in Swtizerland? Bauhaus seems to have only push-fit (not interesting for me I'm more a crimp fit ). It would need something that uses the standard TH crimp, and not a propietary one...
What is the application?
Insulation from hot or cold or both required?
Are you running the pipe around bends or in difficult to access runs?
Will the piping be exposed, is there an aesthetic consideration?
Generally I would lean toward insulated PEX.
GBP is cheap at the moment so you may save something ordering from UK.
Indoor piping, bathroom + kitchen refurb. Access isn't great, but as I've stripped all the floors/wall, and am running new pipes it's not too bad. The only real issue is there is a pipe somewhere it "shouldn't" be going to another apartment, so I can't move that for now. (not to mention the mess of Swiss electrical wiring, but that's another story).
Bought a few apartments a while back, and rennovating them one at a time. The current pipework until now has been stainless... but in this one, there is a mess of stainless, copper, pex. All of which in a mix of imperial and metric. It's a mess! Tempted to go pex, but my only experience with pex was that it wanted to stay coiled, and I didn't like the curvy pipes rather than dead straight/organised runs).
Part of the pipework is visible (cellar), the rest will be concealed behind a drywall.