Please - do any of you have any pictures (or advice) on how you ran your pex water manifold?
Thanks,
Danny
Here is my cold water manifold:
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.earthlink.net%2F%7Ediehls0792%2FBus_2005%2F2005_0523_ColdWaterManifold01.jpeg&hash=0f4eae4a841d7d2dbdb38452df8b2edd42b45ff0)
Here is my hot water manifold:
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.earthlink.net%2F%7Ediehls0792%2FBus_2005%2F2005_0523_HotWaterManifold02.jpeg&hash=997e3dc4fcbc7c6d65618b94e339d7473fff97c5)
Dang Brian, how many sinks do you have? Looks like a maifold with many many oulets. I have fewer, these are my hot water connections.
kit sink
Shower
bath sink
aux faucet for outside
The cold is the same with just two more hookups, one to the hot water heater, and one to my fresh water tank.
Yeah, I know, a little overkill, but I designed it so all inlets and outlets would be home runs. I thought it would give me more flexibility in the future and so far I haven't regretted the design ... though it does take a lot of space!
Hate to rain on a nice fabrication job, but the PVC should be male threads and the copper should be female. The way you have them, the PVC can split in time it is a weaker joint.
Ray D
Hi Ray,
I agree with you, though I used what I had available to me at the given cheap price. I got the fittings from Craig who got a great deal from the manufacturer since they were close out items. Of course, if I hadn't had the deal available to me at the time I would have gone the opposite route.
-Brian
One suggestion-use a bigger pipe for the main pipe, then run reducers down to the normal pipe size. Will create an accumulator so pressure drops are not as noticable when more than one facet is used. I used 2" copper with 1/2" coming off with the ball valves. With two water pumps in parallel, can be showering and the wife washing dishes without temp change. Good Luck, TomC
Well, I thought I had photos of my manifolds online, but I can't find them. When I get home in a couple weeks I can post them.
Basically, though, after much consternation and thought, and building two sets, I finally came up with what I think is the most versatile manifold set. It consists of a main manifold, a cold water distribution manifold, and a hot water distribution manifold. The cold and hot are simply valves routing individual lines to individual fixtures (shower, toilet, bath sink, kitchen sink, etc).
The main manifold is the key. It has incoming line, pump inlet and outlet, tank fill/suction, pressure tank, filtered, and unfiltered outlets, plus suction and pressure hose bibs. It allows me to control whether house water is pressurized from pump or street. It fills and sucks from the tank. It drains the system in the winter and it also will allow me to suck in antifreeze and blow it into the house system, or the tank. I can also hook up a hose and use it to wash the toad window or wash dust out of the radiators, or maybe put out a small fire (if you could get the hose on in time and safely).
Basically, it's a do all manifold and is pretty easy to use, with some basic logic.
Maybe I'll find photos when I get home and post them, if I remember.
craig
Brian,
Nice layout. I really like the angled valves that save space...
Danny
I had thought about building a manifold like Brian's. However, the work and the cost of the valves was not worth it for me. Brain had access to low cost valves and that made it worth it for him
I chose to use a Manabloc system by Vanguard (http://www.vanguardpipe.com/mbloc.html). I got a unit with 8 cold and 6 hot taps for $99 at: http://www.houseneeds.com.
It is a great system, but care must be taken since the design is not real robust. The hot and cold taps are made for PEX type connectors, but the two inlets (hot and cold) are not compatible with tapered seat type PEX connectors. I broke two units fooling with these two connections. Finally connected the unit with clamped hoses. This offered some strain relief and has worked great. Unit is quite compact and easy to work with. There is a picture of the installation on page 2 of my project page listed in my signature.
Hahahah, ok, now I have to make a confession ;). . . as a licensed plumbing contractor, you'd expect that I'd have a really neat, soldered up manifold to show everyone, but, well, I cheated. :D
I bought a "QuickPort Manifold", for about $40, to which I'll mount pex ball valves and run pex to the various appliances. It is simple and easy, compact, and readily availabe on the open market. Just Google "QuickPort manifold" and you'll find several sources.
Oh well, now that you know the truth about me, I'll slink off and be quiet again. Christy