More and more plastics are finding their way into our everyday lives, and water service lines are no exception. Due to its lower cost, many home builders choose black, plastic, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe for water service lines, and there’s some good arguments for it. HDPE is extremely strong, durable, flexible, corrosion free and chemical resistant. These features make it perfect for a variety of underground conditions and help it last up to 100 years.
But it isn’t the best option…
Copper has been, and remains, the material of choice for moving water into and within our homes.
Why is Copper the Best Choice?
Copper pipes are pretty popular among the plumbing world, and have been since the earliest days of plumbing. It was used in ancient Egypt for both waste and water lines. Plumbers still prefer to use it today, even though there are more modern alternatives like HDPE, and there are several reasons why.
Strong and Durable
The most important reason copper piping is so valuable in its role as water service line, is it’s strength, durability, and longevity. Copper pipes are are strong enough to withstand deforming under pressure. This means the sides of a copper pipe will stretch and flex under pressure rather than break, something that becomes very important when the pressure in a home spikes due to changes in the municipal pressure or when the pipe freezes and ice tries to rupture the pipe from the inside out. All this means is that, once properly installed, copper pipes don’t often require work or replacement. As a homeowner, you can be sure you’re paying for something that’s going to last.
Bacteria Free
Certain types of pipes are hotspots for bacteria growth. When certain, common bacteria get in our drinking water it can cause seriously illnesses. Definitely not something you want your water running through. Copper pipes have what’s known as a biostatic atmosphere. This means the inside of copper pipes does not facilitate any type of bacterial growth, keeping the water coming in through these pipes healthier and better tasting than other kinds of pipe.
Inexpensive, Accessible, Environmentally Friendly
Throughout the world, the heavy metal mining industry is in decline due mostly to it’s catastrophic impact on the environment. This has limited the world supply of virgin copper, and the price for it has gone up as a result.
However, copper pipe remains one of the most easily accessible and cheapest types of metal piping to buy. How’s this possible? It has to do with what happens to old copper pipe when it comes out of old buildings and homes. Copper’s End-of-Life recycling rate is over 50%, as high as any of the metals and much higher than plastics like HDPE, which typically have an EOL-RR of close to 30%. The high efficiency with which copper is recycled means the demand for copper pipe can be met almost entirely without taking a single ounce out of the ground. By comparison, making a water pipe out of HDPE, even using recycled materials, will require the use of almost as much fossil fuel as was originally used to make the virgin pipe.
At the end of the day, copper is the perfect pipe for people concerned with environmental friendliness because it is reused over and over again.
Copper Doesn’t Corrode
Not to say that copper does not ever corrode. Given enough time everything breaks down in water, and water that is acidic will cause copper to break down faster. Even then, it takes a long time for copper pipes to come apart. We’re talking decades. Not only does this mean you can count on copper pipes to last a long time, it also means better quality water for you and your family. Unlike plastics, which are under-fire for the amount of estrogenic compounds they release into water, all copper pipes add to your water is a little copper, which just so happens to be an essential trace mineral for our bodies.
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