Removing Pex fastner copper band

[dmascheck]

I have a tight area in my water control panel I need to remove the fresh water fill valve. The valve sheared off flush and it’s a King of The Road Trailer that is no longer manufactured.

I bought one of the plier looking cutters that has a shear blade on one side and a flat jaw on the other.

I am not impressed! I even tried a drill with a small grinding stone. Couldn’t find my Dremel and then what kind of blade, or are is there something easier?

HELP!

[Stripit]

They are a bugger to cut when your short of room. Demel is the best but then a cut off hack saw blade, not able to get a real swipe on it will take some time I'm afraid. I don't think they make a tool especially to remove those rings.

[dmascheck]

They make a tool, but it's worthless in my situation. I can't find my Dremel, btu have a friend with one!

[Rockyhud]

Another thing to consider is the fact the tubing under the existing crimp will be compressed against the valve's inserted fitting, so once the crimp is removed the valve will still have a tight fit inside the Pex tubing, making it hard to remove the old, broken valve without it breaking off inside the tubing. That's one reason I use the brass Pex fittings when I'm dealing with Pex stuff. Also, if I'm careful enough when extracting a brass Pex fitting and haven't damaged the barbs, I can sometimes reuse them later if needed. About the best advice I have is slow and easy to minimize the risk the plastic from the old part(s) doesn't break off inside the tubing you want to reuse. Good luck with your project.

[dmascheck]

I have a maze of small pieces of pex tying in all the valves! If I'm careful removing the copper band, and plan on using the cinch type bands due to space confinements, can the existing tube be reused or does the pex need to be replaced.

If I have to remove the pex tubing completely and reinstall new, it means I have to also cut the opposite end to remove! It cause a domino effect of all the stuff I have to do for one lousy valve!

Also everything is plastic. I wish I had the time and patience to replace it all, but it would be a major undertaking/nightmare. I wish I could and could replace everything with brass, but there are so many short pieces tying it all together. I'm sure they made up the harness before installation. Doing it after the fact is difficult at best! I wish I would buy the whole setup, but that is not going to happen since the trailer is no longer built!

Last but not least, is there an easier way to remove the pex off a hose barb? I've tried prying with a screw driver and it works, but takes some time and major effort!

[Rockyhud]

Dan,
Late last night I thought some more about your dilemma and had the maybe somewhat bright idea of using a heat gun, or hair dryer on high temp, to heat up the Pex tubing, hopefully enough to cause it be expand some and loosen its grip on the Pex fitting inserts. I haven't tried this so it's just an idea at this time but it seemed to make sense to me as I've use heat with other materials that were hard to separate and it helped in several of these instances. Trust me, I can sympathize with the difficulty and frustration you're having with this. I just hope the heat trick helps. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[dmascheck]

Believe it or not, I thought of the same thing! I've heat to even stretch PVC. I know it will work and make my life easier! If it works real easy, I might try another valve, but right now I'm not excited about tackling another one! just getting this one replaced with brass! All the L's will be changed to brass and over time??????? Who knows!

Thank you!