I bought a place that had it installed, I had never worked with it before. The black bands (Copper) seem to work just fine. Borrowed a higher-end crimp tool kit from a plumber friend, it's the one thing you don't want to go cheap with. Seems to be somewhat more reliable than PVC, which seems to have a way of not necessarily staying glued 100% of the time. My own house is much older and all copper. Can't say I have anything negative about PEX to date, a couple of years after my first adventures with it.