Over the years various metals have been used in piping systems for domestic hot water systems. The metal systems, typically based on soldered copper or threaded galvanized steel pipes, provide users with very good mechanical properties, low thermal expansion, and extremely low permeability to oxygen. However corrosion, scale formation, and noise are common in metal piping systems. These problems can be minimized by using polymeric materials for plumbing systems.

Plastics have been used to address the short comings of metallic components in plumbing systems for many years. For some applications, such as under-floor heating, plastic piping materials have captured a large share of the market. In other applications, the trend towards the use of piping solutions based on high performance polymers is increasing, because of the performance advantages and lower installation costs.

Specialty plastics supplied by Solvay companies are being used in a wide variety of applications in the plumbing market where the superior performance and economy of plastic-based systems are winning over metal. These include the use of polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) and polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) for fittings and manifolds, cross linked polyethylene (PEX-b) for the manufacture of tubing and multi layer pipe systems, and polysulfone (PSU) for internal faucet components. The materials used in these applications have been shown to meet the demanding requirements of the industry through a combination of technical data and historical use.