August 2026
Does Your Reno or Sparks Home Have Kitec Plumbing?
If your house was built between 1995 and 2007, there's a real chance the pipe in your walls is a product that was pulled off the market for failing early. Most homeowners I meet have never heard the name.
It's called Kitec. I've found it in Sparks and Spanish Springs, including homes in Serena Springs at Wingfield Springs. I'd bet it's in a lot more houses around here than anybody has counted.
Here's what it is, how to check for it yourself, and what your options actually are. I'm going to be straight with you about one part of this: if you were hoping there's settlement money to pay for the fix, there isn't. More on that below.
What is Kitec pipe?
Kitec was made by a company called IPEX and it hit the market in 1995. It's a composite pipe — plastic with an aluminum layer in the middle — and builders liked it because it was flexible, fast to install, and cheaper than copper. During the building boom, that combination was hard to beat.
The pipe itself usually isn't the problem. The problem is the brass fittings that connect it.
Those fittings were made with a high zinc content. Over time, in a process called dezincification, the zinc leaches out of the brass and leaves the fitting weak and brittle. It happens from the inside, where you can't see it. Eventually the fitting cracks, leaks, or lets go entirely.
IPEX pulled the product in Canada in 2005. There was never a federal recall in the United States.
How do I know if my home has Kitec?
You can check for this yourself in about ten minutes. Look in three places.
1. Under sinks and at the water heater. Find where the pipe comes out of the wall. Kitec pipe is usually blue for cold and orange for hot — but not always, so don't rule it out on color alone.
2. Read what's printed on the pipe and the fittings. Kitec was sold under a lot of different names. Look for any of these:
- Kitec
- Kitec XPA
- PlumbBetter
- IPEX AQUA
- WarmRite
- AmbioComfort
- XPA
- KERR Controls
- Plomberie Améliorée
On the brass fittings, look for KTC, or code markings like ASTM F1974, ASTM 1281, or CSA B137.9/10.
3. Open your electrical panel door and look inside. In a lot of Kitec homes there's a yellow or neon sticker on the inside of the panel warning electricians not to ground the electrical system to the plumbing, because the pipe isn't metal. That sticker is one of the more reliable tells, and almost nobody knows to look for it.
What does a failing Kitec fitting look like?
Two things to watch for.
On the fittings: a buildup of white residue on the outside of the brass. That's the dezincification working its way out. It means the fitting is already degrading.
On the pipe: blackening or bulging. Either one means that section is in trouble.
If you see any of that, don't wait for it to prove itself. Fittings that look like that fail without warning, and they tend to do it while nobody's home.
Is there still money available from the Kitec settlement?
No, and I'd rather tell you that plainly than let you find out later.
There was a class action — In Re: Kitec Plumbing System Products Liability Litigation — and it settled for US$125 million, approved in 2011 by courts in Ontario, Quebec, and the U.S. Northern District of Texas. It covered homeowners across the United States and Canada, Nevada included.
The deadline to file a claim was January 9, 2020. That window is closed.
You'll still see plumbers and websites talking about the settlement like it's an open opportunity. It isn't. If somebody tells you otherwise, ask them for the current claim deadline and watch what happens.
I'm a plumber, not an attorney. If you think you have a claim against a builder or a previous owner, talk to a lawyer about your specific situation. What I can tell you is that the class settlement fund is not going to pay for your repipe.
Do I have to replace it right now?
Not necessarily, and I'm not going to tell you the sky is falling.
Kitec doesn't fail on a schedule. Some systems have been in for twenty-five years and are still holding. Others let go at fifteen. It depends on your water, your pressure, how hot you run your water heater, and plain luck.
What I'd actually tell you:
Replace it now if you've already had a fitting fail, you're seeing white residue or blackened pipe, you're selling in the next year or two, or the thought of a burst line while you're away is going to keep you up at night.
You can plan for it if everything looks clean and you'd rather budget for it on your own timeline than react to a failure.
One thing worth knowing either way: it can come up during escrow. Buyers' inspectors are getting better at spotting Kitec, and finding out about it three weeks before closing is the worst possible time. If you're planning to sell, get ahead of it.
What does replacing it involve?
A whole-home repipe replaces the supply lines throughout the house with either copper or PEX. Which one makes sense depends on your house — I'll tell you honestly which I'd use and why.
The work means opening some drywall to get at the runs, then patching it back. Most single-family homes here finish in about two to four days. Permits get pulled and the work gets inspected. You're not without water the whole time.
If you want the detail on how I handle it, that's on my Kitec pipe replacement page.
Not sure what you've got?
Send me a few photos. Get the pipe under a sink, a close-up of any brass fitting, and the inside of your electrical panel door. I can usually tell you from the photos whether you're looking at Kitec.
If it isn't Kitec, I'll tell you that and you can stop worrying about it. That happens plenty and it costs you nothing to find out.
I'm Mark Lopez. I've been plumbing in this area since 2004 and I run Simply Plumbing myself — when you call, you get me. Licensed in Nevada (#0094109) and California (#926791), bonded and insured.