Hep2o fittings failing

[bradford1]

I see there are various previous threads on this and other sites which discuss Hep2o fittings, I use these fittings and have not had any issues with any that I have fitted, however I have become aware of a few recently which have failed, I know of a block of 45 flats ( 7 years old) where each flat has two 15mm elbows under the sink base unit. To date 9 of these elbows have failed (you can imagine the damage caused each time) I have sent one off to Wavin (parent company of Hep2o) who have taken it apart in a lab and have confirmed to me in writing with pictures that the fitting has failed because the two grab rings have split, this is particularly worrying because I imagine it must have been holding with one split grab ring for a while, then the other one split.

I have asked Wavin for the failure rate of this fitting, their written response is 'Product data failure information is confidential information and is not disclosed'

There is no doubt that the Hep2o product is good, however it does fail (for a number of reasons) and there is no doubt it could be improved upon which would be a win for plumbers and homeowners.

Unfortunately when a fitting fails it is nearly always thrown away, the manufacturer almost never gets to hear of it so it is not added to their failure stats but most importantly they then miss the opportunity to work on an important improvement.

These failed fittings need to find their way back to the manufacturers so that they can be improved, I am happy to start collecting Hep2o fittings in the uk and send them back to Wavin and keep a record of why they have failed, I'm not sure I can offer to do the same for Speed fit etc but Hep2o would be a good start.

I need your input, don't throw away the failed fittings lets gather them together and sent them back for analysis.

 

[Roy_66]

Interesting post. I've got one Hep2o under the shower. Nice deep tray so can get at it if needs be. .

Can I ask one question: In terms of reliability I've assumed (for no good reason really) that Hep2o perhaps better quality/robustness than JG. Done a bit of JG but decided too much effort and difficulty doing enough pipe support for me to be happy with it. I'm also guessing there are lots of spikes on the mains these days, and people that don't think about flicking taps off. As an amateur I won't ever be buying a crimp tool for crimped on fittings but guess that is the way to go now for professionals that can afford the tooling.

Just interested what all the professionals here think about all this.

Cheers,

Roy (amateur plumber)

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Are these the grey ones or the white ones ?

 

[Deleted member 120897]

Fit copper, as it’s proper and don’t recall failures.

 

[bradford1]

Are these the grey ones or the white ones ?

I believe the grey ones are the previous generation so I would like to concentrate on the white ones

 

[ShaunCorbs]

I believe the grey ones are the previous generation so I would like to concentrate on the white ones

Haven’t had any new ones fail but I don’t use it that much

Had a few of the older grey green gripper rings fail tho