pex fittings, grrr

The only one I could find is brass. That provides a weak link for freeze damage (although the ability of pex to expand to 3x normal size might give a relief to the brass in case of freeze up?)

The pex won't protect the brass. At the greenhouse the water entrance is next to an exterior wall. This winter we had a serious cold snap and that entrance froze. There is pex on either side of a brass spud at the meter. That froze and split. Then because we had no water the boss put a heater on the entrance and it defrosted after she left the shop. I arrived to find a fire hose like stream spraying across the shop. Got soaked with freezing cold water on a -20 day. They had to shut off the water at the main which took about an hour because the ground was frozen all the way down to the shutoff access cover. They had to jackhammer down to the cover. Was a whole process.

Point being, the pex didn't protect the brass entrance spud on the meter. You have to remember there are 2 types of pex as well. Homeowner kind and commercial kind. The homeowner is the crimp type and the commercial is the expansion type that you have to get an expander tool for. You expand the end of the pipe or fitting and then allow it to shrink back to seal. They aren't interchangeable and create problems because you can't fix one with the other. Pipes are different sizes and fittings for one won't fit the other.

Looking at the sharkbite fittings in the store it said for pex b only. Great, another thing to keep track of!

Yeah, leave it to the manufacturers to come up with a great idea and then screw it all up by creating 2 different things with the same name.