Have you seen one of these?

PEX MANIFOLD SYSTEM SOLVES LEAKS AND GIVES FAST HOT WATER

On occasion I stumble across a home feature I’ve never seen before. And I must have been a plumber in a past life, because water recirculation pumps, pressure limiting valves, expansion tanks, and whole home pressure gauges really seem to get my pipes flowing.

Behold the PEX Manifold system, a modern advancement of plumbing beauty. Think of it like a circuit breaker for all plumbing fixtures in your home. Each sink, toilet, or shower on its own dedicated line; one line for hot, another for cold. This dedicated line setup means that if something along the line or at the fixture springs a leak, you can completely shut it off at the manifold, while not disturbing the water distribution to the rest of your home.

And according to Professional Engineer Robert Martelli (that’s right, I’m citing my dad in my own newsletter!) a dedicated line results in faster hot water delivery than a traditional trunk & branch style setup. Not only do the manifold’s lines take a more direct route to the fixture, the diameter of the pipe can be smaller, which means less cold water has to be cleared from the line before the hot water is delivered. (Thanks for the insight, Dad!)

Additionally the system can help smooth out water pressure fluctuations, so a toilet flush during a shower doesn’t result in a moody spouse.

PEX piping is of course all the rage in today’s home plumbing systems, given its flexibility to easily bend a path through your home’s framework. Couple it with a PEX Manifold, an expansion tank, pressure limiting valve, leak detection system, and pressure gauge, and I could geek out over that setup all day.

A PEX Manifold System is sometimes called a home-run plumbing system.  Shown here in a new construction home prior to drywall.