How to Remove a PEX-A Coupling (Tips & Mistakes)
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To take off a PEX-a coupling you will need:
You should also wear gloves and use pliers to protect your hands from the hot surfaces–in this case copper, brass and PEX.
You can watch the video on how to do this here or read on to skim:
This “opportunity” to remove the coupling happened when we were replacing our water main through the front yard. This was also our first removal of a ProPEX coupling so I’m also sharing our mistakes so that you learn how to do this faster and safer and therefore, increase your chances at reusing the brass coupling. If you have an engineered polymer coupling, you can’t reuse it–it is a single use only deal.
STEP 1: Heat the PEX ring with a heat gun.
Fun fact: This is one of those tasks that when you do this right the first time you save an exponential amount of time redoing it. If you’d like to know specifically just how long it takes I covered it in this video.
It was an interesting breakdown to see how slow the job went once we hit this snag because it wasn’t just the time sink, but the emotional hit when trying to get the water back on. The fun part though, is it looks really neat to see the PEX turn clear in a hyperlapse.
STEP 2: Cut the PEX ring with a utility knife.
This is where we should have used gloves to prevent burns.
One cut is enough. You can give it a nice score and then reheat it again and the score will deepen as the heat is applied.
STEP 3: Peel the ring off.
You can also use pliers to peel the ring off once it is entirely cut through. It’s a little safer than using the utility knife.
I am not redoing a coupling for posterity–this is reality and I’m willing to share our mistakes so we can all do better at this!
STEP 4: Apply more heat and wiggle the fitting out of the PEX.
This next part (shown in the video) is what you should also not do. Don’t use the utility knife on the PEX. This way has a high risk of cutting the brass barb, which we are trying to preserve so we can keep using the copper whip coming off the water meter. Instead, reheat the PEX with the heat gun, then, wearing gloves because everything will be extremely hot, work the coupling out of the PEX by pulling it apart and moving it back and forth.
STEP 5: Cut the PEX back to a good point and put on a new coupling.
Whether or not you nicked the PEX, it’s a good idea to cut off the piece that was on the coupling and have a fresh start. In our case, this plumbing is going underground and I don’t ever want to see it again. So cutting a little off and starting over is insurance in case either one of us accidentally did nick it and it just wasn’t visible by the human eye and it causes a problem years down the road.
Some things are just worth completely eliminating the risk to prevent future pain.
STEP 6: Work faster and smarter than last time.
Note, in the video I held the PEX in place for an extremely long time. While my first install took less than 9 seconds to grip and hold just short of where I wanted it to go, I just couldn’t help but hold it in place just a little longer.
This is a prime example of learning the hard way and overcompensating the next time.
I’m OK with that.
I hope this post helps you so that you don’t make our same mistakes and your project goes faster than ours. If you have any additional suggestions, by all means, drop a comment because I’m obviously learning too.
Then watch this video next because I will show you exactly what you should do next time and make sure you don’t make some of these mistakes putting the coupling back on with a new PEX ring.
