I don't understand how I was allowed this word

[2cute]

I live in a temperate climate, so the worst I ever get it a light crusting of ice in my windscreen, but PEX?....saved me thousands when I replaced the old crusty gal...the hardware store sells the pipe and the fittings (and the white plastic suits with the hoods to keep the spiders out of your hair)...cuts easily, no crimping tool, bends sufficiently to curve around posts, and is waaay cheaper than copper, the loveliest bit of invisible DIY ever!

Thanks floppers. So Pex looks like PVC but is more durable and apparently just as inexpensive.


Thanks everyone for your insight. There's always so much to know, I can barely keep up with it all.

[2cute]

From personal experience with frozen pipes, I can tell you that I was able to thaw them by gently heating them with a propane torch because they were made of copper. I would not have been able to do that with any kind of plastic. The particular frozen pipes were as a result of an extended cold spell, where at the peak the temperature was -27 F and the wind chill more than -100 F (thanks to winds of about 60 mph). That was in the middle of a week in which the temperature never went above zero and was -20 or worse every night. I have experienced, personally, temperatures of -43 F with no wind, and then the cold was sneaky. The -100 F wind chill was agony, and I have never suffered so much to get the mail. It was like being flayed alive, though I though I was warmly dressed. Stepping from the house into the wind and the cold was indescribably painful. When I thawed the pipes I was inside, though cold. I was uncomfortable, but not in immediate danger of death. I can say that PVC is really easy to install, very durable, and quite light. Copper really demands a plumber. I like copper.

Eeek! Where were you living? I'll be sure to NEVER MOVE THERE! I don't like the cold.

I would have to hire a plumber either way as I'm not handy with those types of tasks.

[2cute]

Polyethelene ("pe" part of pex) cross-linked molecules ("x "part of pex) comprise the pex tubing and allow for expansion up to 3 times the tube's nominal diameter, yet have material "memory" which allows them to shrink back to their original shape. You can also carefully bend pex into an arc if needed to avoid the extra elbow fittings used in plumbing.

Copper and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) are rigid materials that lack the flexibility to expand enough to handle the terrific pressure of water freezing.

After all, freezing water breaks rocks and causes mountains to crumble.

Nothing's perfect, and enough force pretty much destroys any building material, but you use what gives you the best advantage in your circumstances. Who knows what new materials technological advances will bring in the future?

Thank you Naboka. I wonder if I could request Pex when a plumber comes to repair my future PVC plumbing. I know when I've complained about the PVC cracking in the past, they just replace with copper pipes. It seems to me the copper is more durable as its only the joints that will split & create a leak whereas in PVC it could be anywhere alone the tube. I'm no fan of PVC but almost every contractor I've ever hired wants to replace just about everything with it. I'm supposing because its cheap and it will crack then they'll be rehired to fix it, thus charging me yet again, over and over.

I didn't know freezing water broke rocks and caused mountains to crumble.

[floppers]

I live in a temperate climate, so the worst I ever get it a light crusting of ice in my windscreen, but PEX?....saved me thousands when I replaced the old crusty gal...the hardware store sells the pipe and the fittings (and the white plastic suits with the hoods to keep the spiders out of your hair)...cuts easily, no crimping tool, bends sufficiently to curve around posts, and is waaay cheaper than copper, the loveliest bit of invisible DIY ever!

[Naboka]

How is Pex different from PVC? I know PVC is very common in my area & it cracks when it gets super cold (30˚F or colder). So pipes burst inside of walls & also creates a big (expensive) mess.

Polyethelene ("pe" part of pex) cross-linked molecules ("x "part of pex) comprise the pex tubing and allow for expansion up to 3 times the tube's nominal diameter, yet have material "memory" which allows them to shrink back to their original shape. You can also carefully bend pex into an arc if needed to avoid the extra elbow fittings used in plumbing.

Copper and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) are rigid materials that lack the flexibility to expand enough to handle the terrific pressure of water freezing.

After all, freezing water breaks rocks and causes mountains to crumble.

Nothing's perfect, and enough force pretty much destroys any building material, but you use what gives you the best advantage in your circumstances. Who knows what new materials technological advances will bring in the future?

[bwt1213]

How is Pex different from PVC? I know PVC is very common in my area & it cracks when it gets super cold (30˚F or colder). So pipes burst inside of walls & also creates a big (expensive) mess.

From personal experience with frozen pipes, I can tell you that I was able to thaw them by gently heating them with a propane torch because they were made of copper. I would not have been able to do that with any kind of plastic. The particular frozen pipes were as a result of an extended cold spell, where at the peak the temperature was -27 F and the wind chill more than -100 F (thanks to winds of about 60 mph). That was in the middle of a week in which the temperature never went above zero and was -20 or worse every night. I have experienced, personally, temperatures of -43 F with no wind, and then the cold was sneaky. The -100 F wind chill was agony, and I have never suffered so much to get the mail. It was like being flayed alive, though I though I was warmly dressed. Stepping from the house into the wind and the cold was indescribably painful. When I thawed the pipes I was inside, though cold. I was uncomfortable, but not in immediate danger of death. I can say that PVC is really easy to install, very durable, and quite light. Copper really demands a plumber. I like copper.

[2cute]

Love the look of copper. But, pex is cheaper. And hidden behind walls? Who sees it? Plus, copper can freeze and burst when connected to outside faucets when the temperature drops waaaaaaaaay down. Tearing corroded, concrete-embedded gal out is definitely not fun. Nor cheap.

How is Pex different from PVC? I know PVC is very common in my area & it cracks when it gets super cold (30˚F or colder). So pipes burst inside of walls & also creates a big (expensive) mess.

[bwt1213]

Yes, sometimes the suffix is "or" or "ar". But that would not be the case for the examples I mentioned. I believe I recently tried to use "foiler" and was denied, too. I looked up the rule on line and the discussion mentioned "creating a noun of agency" from a verb. No exceptions to the rule were mentioned for any action verb. If the noun is intended to refer to a class, then the "or" ending is used (distributor, vendor, etc.)

[bwt1213]

Good word. Stan.

Doesn't accept pex either, which is so common in building. A type of cross-linked polyethylene plumbing pipe that's replaced copper in most home construction. PEX has been around for a couple of decades.

It's long been a rule in standard English that any action verb will take an -r or -er ending to mean "someone or something that --". So. a "poler" is "one who poles", and a "soler" is "one who soles". But "doler" is not allowed, nor is "holer". Were either to appear in a sentence, no native English speaker would have any doubt to their meaning. In fact, they are not made-up words, they are actual words. There are at least thousands, if not tens of thousands of such words not in this dictionary nor in SOWPODS. And, of course, we should remember that the plural of such nouns is always formed by adding an "s", so "dolers" and "holers" are also words. You can call me a doler of truth. And anything you call a punch could as well be called a "holer". I could be wrong, but it seems that for about a third of all action verbs, this "adding -r or -er" rule is disallowed in this game's dictionary and also in SOWPODS. And all those plurals are also disallowed, of course.

[Naboka]

I had to replace my gal with pex...I don't have a problem with copper, but the gal(vansied) pipe ...chokes.

Love the look of copper. But, pex is cheaper. And hidden behind walls? Who sees it? Plus, copper can freeze and burst when connected to outside faucets when the temperature drops waaaaaaaaay down. Tearing corroded, concrete-embedded gal out is definitely not fun. Nor cheap.

[floppers]

I had to replace my gal with pex...I don't have a problem with copper, but the gal(vansied) pipe ...chokes.

[Naboka]

It's also impossible for this or any dictionary to be perfectly up to date. For example, Wordtwist does not currently accept stan, which means an overzealous fan. It probably will in another year or two.

Good word. Stan.

Doesn't accept pex either, which is so common in building. A type of cross-linked polyethylene plumbing pipe that's replaced copper in most home construction. PEX has been around for a couple of decades.

[ShirleyMarquez]

It's also impossible for this or any dictionary to be perfectly up to date. For example, Wordtwist does not currently accept stan, which means an overzealous fan. It probably will in another year or two.

[bwt1213]

So I probably didn't avoid being a polemic. But I hope I avoided a screed.

[bwt1213]

There is a certain lexicological rigidity in academia, trying to force English to be what it is not. It is rather like the SOWPODS insistence that words outside their purview are not proper words at all. Another example of this is the insistence that "gerunds are not nouns", and that gerunds therefore don't take plurals. I read the academic reasoning for this position, and it boiled down to the idea that gerunds were not countable things and therefore couldn't take a plural. And yet I can come up with examples of "kinds of" gerunds for every gerund that exists, so their argument is basically invalid. There are many kinds of "swimming", "running", "loving", "frying", and so on. I'm sure everyone playing this game can find legitimate reasons to pluralize every gerund in existence. In fact, gerunds really are nouns. Really. All the way. But I can't change what lexicographers think. They don't listen to me. They tell each other that gerunds are not numerable and not nouns and they agree on that. The facts don't really matter to them.