Originally Posted by Brittany Dogs

The PEX cutting tool is inexpensive and cuts the plastic pipe like butter. A must have when doing PEX work. I had to do some of this work on my new unit and I would cut right above the black band to save as much pipe length as possible. All you have to do when you do this is remove part of the previous "T" left inside the PEX pipe and this is not hard to do.

Like Bill said, the brass PEX elbows and tees are expensive but cheaper than getting the crimp tool if all you need to do is a few connections.

I also have one coupler, one tee and one elbow, plus a three foot section of PEX pipe, along with the cutting tool, in my unit as a plumbing first-aid kit.