Placing water pipes in outside walls greatly increases the risk of frozen and burst pipes in cold.
Pex pipe in attic.
The surface of pex piping can become grimy over time so before insulating you should take just a few minutes to clean it off.
The water inside is going to get hot.
A wet rag should easily wipe away any visible dirt or debris.
The fact that it is pex has little to do with it although it is possible that it provides a bit higher thermal resistance than say copper.
The new plastic fashioned into flexible pex pipe also known as pex tubing arrived in the us in the 1980s initially for radiant floor heating systems.
It is important to insulate pex pipe in an attic particularly in cold weather areas.
Moving plumbing pipes from a slab to an attic use pex pipe.
Sometimes they have been insulated makes very little difference to the temp on a july or august afternoon.
Pex cpvc poly back in the day even copper in the attics etc.
You have a pipe running through the attic the attic gets hot.
If you insulate the pipe the water will warm more slowly.
While pex does not ordinarily burst in the cold the water in the pipes can still freeze.
Yes the cold water is hot in the summer very hot in fact due to the heat of the attic.
Foam is used most commonly and generally works well.
Because pex piping is flexible it is often used in angles loops or other non linear shapes which makes it imperative to have equally flexible insulation material.