Saw this on a Screwfix listing for a solder ring fitting
"Lead-free solder. Proven over 70 years. Use on all direct and indirect hot and cold domestic water services. For commercial and industrial applications. EN 1254-1. WRAS approved and Kitemarked. " Has lead-free solder been around for 70 years ?
A clutch of patents seem to be granted in 1987/88 (US 4695428) but they refer to earlier patents of 1966 (SU 183037) couldn't find any easy link back to earlier applications - not to say there aren't any ...
US 1437641 dates back to 1922, which does describe a lead-free solder, but intended for soldering aluminium or aluminium alloys.
Probably. Pretty useless stuff though.
Do you think it would melt if used to install this "80 kilowatt" boiler from Trading Depot:
Usenet Nutter wibbled on Thursday 10 December 2009 11:10
I read it as "soldered joints have been around for 70 years".
Which makes the claim a bit of a liberty.
How do you read that in to the listing ?
Usenet Nutter wibbled on Thursday 10 December 2009 12:10
I read it as someone who isn't very clueful advertised the soldered joints as "proven for 70 years", and didn't think "lead free" vs "leaded" made any difference.
Yeah..You are probably right .
I think "Proven over 70 years." refers to Yorkshire fittings (not that I've checked their age) and the first two sentences would be better swapped.
Chris
Useless in what sense? It does the job, and I find it vastly easier to use than leaded. Maybe I prefer lead-free because I learnt and evolved my technique to cope with lead-free's properties. I tried some leaded recently and made a complete mess of a lot of the joints until I switched back to lead-free.
dan.
Well, you have to melt it to use it.
If you mean will it melt when the boiler's in service, then no (unless it's gone very wrong). I think lead-free has a higher melting point anyway, IIRC, but TBH, it doesn't make much difference when soldering pipework IME.
In message , dent writes
That's due to your poor technique
Lead free suffers from creep and crystallisation for a start
What am I doing wrong, and how can I improve? Being able to do a decent job with leaded solder would be cheaper than lead-free! What is the main difference in technique between the two?
Does this cause real problems with domestic plumbing (e.g., potable where you have no choice but lead-free), and how do you reduce the problems?
dan.
At the end of the day, like most things, it comes down to practice glasshopper
No experience with it in a plumbing situation, I have plenty of leaded
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