Autopsy of a Failed Sharkbite Flexible Hose 3/4" FIP Fitting for Water Heaters

Here is an Autopsy of the SharkBite Push-to-Connect 3/4-in FIP Water Heater Hose Fitting. After finding small rubber pieces in hot water, I have narrowed it down to these Shark Bite flexible hoses. The old hoses are using EPDM / rubber that is being decomposed from what appears to be chlorine in the water and the hot water. The disintegration of the inside rubber is what the small black pieces were in the water.

A quick call Sharkbite (Reliance Worldwide Corporation) had them confirm the issue, said they have improved the compound being used, and have sent me replacement hoses with the needed removal tool! Great customer service - thank you. I replaced the hoses to/from hot water heater - issues solved. Now we can see how bad the old ones really were by checking them via endoscope and then opening them up. I will update the video/description if anything changes regarding the new ones.

FYI: SharkBite came out with new corrugated stainless-steel hoses in addition to the improved flexible ones: https://amzn.to/2NZYaip . Since they are still - relatively - new, I am monitoring to see if others report any issues with them so I am happy to use the -hopefully- flexible ones for now.

The new flexible hoses end their model / part# with LF (i.e. U3088FLEX24LF, ...18LF, ....12LF etc) , unlike the old model. I noticed some places, i.e. lowes, shows LFZ at the end (same thing just their part #). Online you can find them at: https://amzn.to/38wzOEW

Edit: Starting in 2020, if you buy them via the link above, Amazon will pay me a small commission at no extra cost to you. All options are the same and are my own, as they always have been in all of my videos.

Видео Autopsy of a Failed Sharkbite Flexible Hose 3/4" FIP Fitting for Water Heaters канала ColoradoRMN