Recalled plumbing pipes?

Question

We are considering buying the house we are now renting. It was built in the 60's and we are getting a pretty good price on it. It has a crawlspace underneath, so it's easy to get at the plumbing. One time a handyman, not really a pro, told us he thought our pipes might have been recalled. They are gray and flexible. Does anyone know about this? Are all plumbing pipes flexible?

Answer 1

actually the recall was on polybutylene pipe....read here and compare then do some research if that is what u have...


http://www.polybutylene.com/poly.html

Answer 2

The pipes you are talking about are called qest there was a problem with the acetal fittings in the 80's the manufacturer a division of a huge oil company made a bad plastic mixture. The pipes are easy to run less fittings less labor and in a freeze situation will expand pretty fa r before they burst. If the fittings are copper or brass as well as the little rings that hold them together you should be fine. Besides if the pipes have been in that long they should have failed if they were going tol

Answer 3

No they are not all flexible and one brand of grey plastic pipe was pulled from the market after a lot of problems with connectors. It confuse the issue, another brand of grey flexible plastic piping used different plastic for the connectors and is still on the market. Those still on the market use compression fittings with largish nuts and do not look like the pictures here is a copy of the report
http://www.spencerclass.com/mainpage.htm

Answer 4

most pipes are copper. the recall occured against Quest pipe infact there was a class action suit that if you had more then 2 leaks the company would replace them
If the pipes are easily acessible they could be replaced with CPVC pipe or copper though copper would involve working with an open flame where CPVC is done with a Purple primer and Orange glue (easy task most home owner's can complete