pressure testing pex

[astidham]

I was wondering what psi to leak test my Pex water lines with.
I have found searching the web 50 psi all the way to 150 psi.
any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Todd

[MountainDon]

I was told by the inspector here (many years ago) to use 150 psi or 1.5X the expected static pressure, whichever was greater. And it had to hold within 5 lbs for 2 hours.

[astidham]

I was told by the inspector here (many years ago) to use 150 psi or 1.5X the expected static pressure, whichever was greater. And it had to hold within 5 lbs for 2 hours.

Thanks Don,
I bought a pressure testing gauge for pex and it only goes too 100 psi, also the local plumbing store told me to test it to 35 psi?
I said isn't water pressure higher than that?.......
so far I have tested it to 50 psi, it held for 12 hrs

[MountainDon]

You are probably good on that, though it does make sense to me to test at 1.5X the systems operating pressure, as a safety factor.

Water pressure shouldn't really have to be any higher than 40 psi for normal use. Higher pressure can be hard on valves in washing machines and the like. Our city water arrives at 120+ psi though. We have a pressure regulator after the meter and before the water enters the house. It is set to 30 psi.

[Don_P]

We usually have 40/60 psi well switches and the plumber tests PEX to 90 psi.

[astidham]

We usually have 40/60 psi well switches and the plumber tests PEX to 90 psi.

Thanks for the input Don_P

[Rob_O]

I was at my neighbors new home under construction today. The gauge on the pex water line under test said 95 PSI

[astidham]

I was at my neighbors new home under construction today. The gauge on the pex water line under test said 95 PSI

Thanks Rob

[suburbancowboy]

Our building inspector checked mine at 50psi for 30 minutes here in utah.

[MushCreek]

I did PEX for the small bathroom in my barn. I have 80 psi, and it held fine, until it developed 2 different leaks after about 3 weeks. I'm a little scared as to why it took so long for the leaks to show up! I did find that the gage that came with the tool appeared to be wrong, as another, better, gage I bought showed all of my connections to be not crimped enough. Somebody please tell me that the PEX I'm going to put in the house will not leak!

[MountainDon]

It won't leak.  OK?   You're good to go.   

[firefox]

Try to design things so you have manifold distribution to all fixtures and keep connections out of walls. Yes, you have to use more pex, but it beats ripping out wet moldy wall board.
Bruce