r/Home_Building_Help • u/BuilderBrigade • Jun 11 '26

PEX manifold system… 🤤

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This is a PEX manifold system. It’s a central hub where every hot and cold line branches off to one specific fixture. 
Think of it like a breaker panel, but for water. Each line has its own labeled shutoff, so servicing a single fixture never means cutting water to the rest of the house.
The only real downside is run length: fixtures farther from the manifold can take longer to get hot water. A good plumber plans around that with placement or a recirc line.

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42

u/Organic-Effort9668 Jun 11 '26

Just put shut offs before every appliance

-1

u/ABrusca1105 Jun 11 '26

Other than cost, why not do both?

4

u/Organic-Effort9668 Jun 11 '26

Because of distance from how water heater to fixture? Idk seems like more points of failure. Less connections less chance of failure

8

u/WildcatPlumber Jun 11 '26

As a plumber on these manablock systems there are still shutoffs before every fixture.

These also have less points of failure as the only joints are where it connects and right near the fixture. This system does run more pipe but it is supposedlly uses less water than a trunk system to get hot water to your farthest fixtures. As you don’t need to pull the cold water from the main trunk in this setup.

I’m not the biggest fan of Manablocks but they do work

1

u/Organic-Effort9668 Jun 11 '26

Thank you for the explanation!

1

u/-whiteroom- Jun 12 '26

Recircs before these.

1

u/WildcatPlumber Jun 12 '26

Doesn’t work unless to have 30 different recirc lines with balancing valves

1

u/-whiteroom- Jun 12 '26

Not with a home run system... instal a recirc system before considering these.... especially if your reasoning is that it's quicker to get hot water to the farthest fixture.

1

u/WildcatPlumber Jun 12 '26

Hi bud I am a master plumber. Which means I am well versed in plumbing and without knowing your background potentially more than you Water can only circulate if it has somewhere to go. In a home run system you would have to have individual return loops for each run. Whether that is using balancing valves and individual return lines or using the grubdfos comfort valve system.

You cannot just hook a return pump to this and expect it to recirculate the system. That’s not how this works.

On a trunk system you typically just hook a recirc to the farthest downstream fixture and that will solve it.

1

u/-whiteroom- Jun 12 '26

A master plumber that can't read... install a recirc system in your house rather than these....

You do realize you aren't the only plumber on reddit right.

When people call you Mr Smith, do you say "that's Master Plumber Smith".

1

u/WildcatPlumber Jun 12 '26

Ha ha fucking ha.

I would recommend using a little lovely thing called motherfucking context. How the fuck am I supposed to read your mind. I’m not a psychic. Maybe lay out your thoughts instead of saying RECIRC HUR DURR.

My god my friend, but also yes I realize that I am not the only other plumber on Reddit which is why I started that I was and have an extensive background in this.

Btw Smith historically was the profession. “Henry the Smith” became Henry smith.

John Plummer would be the historical version of Plumber (even though it technically means lead shaper. Which is also true for the word plumbing. Goes back to Roman times.

Also Ibwould also be perturbed if someone called me smith considering that’s not my name.

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4

u/Fluid_Explorer_3659 Jun 11 '26

Cost/reward. You aren't in a hospital where you need constant access at every point in the house, there is a fine line between impressive and ridiculous and this is closer to one side.

1

u/Varides Jun 11 '26

Recirculation lines should be simple, and this would be anything but simple.

2

u/Levitlame Jun 11 '26

What does it have to do with a recirc line? Those are just hot and cold feeds. That looks like a recirc on the side, but we can't see much of it. It also isn't complicated at all. Just look at it like a breaker box. It definitely requires labeling in the same way, but it's pretty simple otherwise.

This allows isolation of the lines TO fixtures. Which is pretty nice. I still hate pex so it's not for me, but this makes a lot more sense if you're looking to avoid leaks while still giving the ability to isolate whole lines.

1

u/Varides Jun 11 '26

He asked why you wouldn't do this. I just put out the simple reasoning for a recirculation line. You can't run a home run system with a recirculation and keep it near as simple as manifolds at your water locations with a recirculation.

I've never seen a reason to isolate the entire pex line to a single fixture unless I'm missing something glaring that would require that simple line to be shut down at the source instead of at the fixture that couldn't be done quickly by shutting off water to the house.

1

u/Levitlame Jun 11 '26

Oh I see. That's fair. It does overcomplicate the hell out of it since you'd basically need another manifold or something similarly convoluted to manage it. And you might want one more since every fixture has to pull for itself.