Newell Gurus

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.

Wow, one more reason that I don't trust plastic and vinyl manufacturers claims. I have some, but very little, gray tubing that I will replace thanks to your post! Interesting FAQ on polybutylene tubing: http://www.polybutylene.com/myths.html

One aspect of this situation is how to sanitize the lines and keep them that way. At a minimum it would seem that when taking the coach out of storage I'll need to flush the lines with chlorinated water for some undetermined time prior to installing the carbon filter. Since I've lived with unchlorinated well water for years with no ill effects I don't see any further efforts needed as long as there is regular use.

Ah yes, more to think about

Interesting, our '82 is Sweated Copper and I have not found any Plastic Tubing except where I used it for the RO System. This also makes me glad that I followed that example of our Newell when re-plumbing our vintage 18' Airstream.

Our '87 doesn't appear to have any plastic either, all sweated copper.

the 90 i had was all copper too. i thought they moved to pex, so i am surprised to see any polybutelene. they stopped making polyb in the early to mid 90's sometime.

actual failures were really rare from what i understand

tom

My 1993 had polybutelene. I replaced all of it above the floor and plan to redo the water bay this summer.