Quote Originally Posted by ktnissen View Post
My first suggestion is, if you are going to do this and you are inclined to fix a water or future water issues, upgrade to the water manifold. I can not say what you're water lines are like but mine was designed to continually fail with a string of water lines out one branch and the shoddy pex to flexible tubing connections. This is why my underbelly has been removed so many times.

I wished I could have done this all at once with the underbelly removed. The manifold was installed December. The underbelly was not removed. Just the flex water lines in the pass through were replaced, we left the flex lines that were covered by the underbelly. A friends nephew, apprentice plumber, did the majority of the work so i had to pay him when i strained my back. Total cost around 800. If the belly was off and it was summer, I could do it all for around 500.

It is so much easier to run and fix new lines underneath and pushing through, instead of reaching and crawling in the pass through. Go with the segmented underbelly. I have four sections. I wished I had thought about the furnace return. Take the damn Nautilus system out. All those functions are useless. I blow air out of my lines to winterize, don't use pink stuff. Side benefit, I get to install the star link cable.
Awesome write-up! Thank You. I know this is a very big topic, especially among those living in cold areas that want to protect the plumbing or those that have had to drop the chloroplast to fix the plumbing and ultimately have the same discovery you had.
Thanks for sharing!

Bill