The plumber was replacing our water heater and the connections were from copper to CPVC and when trying to create a new connection by cutting the old connection, the CPVC pipe would crack. He said since the pipe was about 22 years old, it gets very brittle and not easy to cut. He first tried a cutting tool but it would just crack the pipe at the point of the cut. He then tried to cut the pipe using a (hack saw?). Is there any way to reinforce this old pipe from cracking in the future and prevent the pipe from cracking at the drop of a hat causing additional leaks. It difficult to replace because the pipe runs through the condo unit below as I have a 2nd floor unit.

pex water piping comes in big rolls so if you can manage to get an electricians fish wire down from your unit. you can just pull some new pipes down and abandon the crumbling CPVC.

To answer your question, NO. CPVC is prone to spontaneous failures and there is nothing you can do to prevent, or predict it.