Surely if the homeowner is informed in the small print, or large print for that matter, the limitations of a sprinkler system that is fully compliant with all required codes…then how can that fall back on you. Its not as if the homeowner will be given a false sense of security that they have a 100% safe system, when its actually only 99% effective…whose famous last words were ‘Go back to bed honey, the sprinklers will take care of that fire in the living room.’ The bottom line is a system that is fully funcional for 360 days a year is better than no system.

1 . pex will freeze but not break
this is good for the homeowner only

if you are a contractor and the pex pipe residential fire sprinkler system freezes then that home has a fire which does extensive damage ( please pray that no one dies in this fire ) owners insurance company sues the sprinkler contractor and his insurance company
who is at fault… how does the contractor prove the system was inoperable because of event beyond his control
i speak from personal experience about this
in 1987 88 i installed approved polybutylene
( not the same material but it will not break if frozen)fire sprinkler systems at a company that
did @ 5 million worth of this business alone
the problem is as stated earlier …
contracting and installing a residential fire sprinkler system is solely for saving lives
how is FROZEN PEX going do accomplish that
in a court of law your judgement will be called into question ( as it may be very hard for your lawyers to prove the pipe was frozen at the time of the fire ) also the issue of your business ethics..are you minimising the singular goal of saving lives to make money..
this may not sound like much of a problem but
the homeowner who lost his house or pets or loved ones is going to generate a lot of sympathy

the assumption that any frozen pipe fire sprinkler system is good for home owners or contractors or the residential fire sprinkler industry is ridiculous.. what would be good for everyone involved would be a residential dry piped system.. this would require a considerable effort by nfpa to save EVERYONE
the considerable problem of frozen / breaking pipe in there homes … the other major hurdle
is to get all home builders to care enough to
make accommodations for the safe installation of residential fire sprinkler system ..
and lastly the education of all home owners
about the need to keep the heat on or turn off and drain your system
the residential fire sprinkler industry has a daunting task ahead

In a 50% mixture, glycol will give you -60 burst point. Ice crystals will form at higher temps (around 0 degrees F) but will continue to flow. Something is amiss here.

Ancillary questions: 1. Seems to me that a fire marshal masquerading as a fire protection company on the side is a conflict of interest. At the very least, it’s unseemly. 2. Since residential sprinkler systems are actually more like a giant IED waiting to go off and cause massive property destruction, rather than actually protecting the house from fire, why are they required in so many rural communities today? 3. Corollary to Q#2., why if sprinklers are so amazingly valuable don’t they all get installed with PEX???? This would seem a no-brainer.

Thanks for any salient replies.

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How can it be that a system freshly recharged with anti freeze could then freeze and burst… this in a heated house albeit the system was PVC, not PEX.

This puts the whole notion of the desirability of sprinklers in residential structures in question, IMHO. In colder climes, there would seem to be such a “ticking time bomb” liability that the sprinkler system will freeze and burst and cause stunning amounts of property damage, vs. the alternate risk of perhaps saving some of the house from a fire. Water damage can be every bit as devastating as fire and/or smoke damage.

Just saying….