[77newell]

While attempting to get a replacement valve for my 93 coach's fresh water system I learned that my coach was built with polybutylene tubing for the piping for the hot and cold water distribution. This tubing was used from the 70's to the late 90's and is generally gray in color. It can be installed with either plastic fittings or copper as is the case with my coach.

This tubing has proven to deteriorate when exposed to chlorinated water. It deteriorates from the inside out so there is no way to see the failures developing. Apparently many houses have had to have the entire water supply piping replaced. Depending on how much exposure the piping in our coaches get to the chlorine, our piping will fail too. Minimizing exposure to the chlorine can take three directions: 1) use water with no chlorine, 2) with infrequent use of the coach, drain the water between uses, or 3) use a carbon filter to treat all incoming water. That is the approach I'm going to take since a lot of online sources say it will work and it is far easier and probably cheaper that replacing all my fresh water piping.

This was a heck of a surprise to me. I didn't see this one coming, but it's nice there is an affordable and easily implemented solution. So, if you have gray tubing you probably want to have a black filter.