Solder question

I'm making a wort chiller. That's just a spiral of copper tubing to cool boiling hot beer brew to put into the fermenter. I need to join the ends, and in the configuration it's in, it would be easier to use a sweat fitting than a compression. Is there any problem with that small amount of solder regarding lead?

Steve

Reply to
Steve B
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There are billions of leaded solder joints on potable supply lines in the world. But...my blood/lead level is high, maybe I'm dismissive.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

if it worries you, use silver solder or use the no-lead solder now sold for plumbing

Reply to
Bill

I believe that if you use Plumber's solder (50-50) you're supposed to be OK -- but then, the rules have been a-changing, and wort is going to be more acidic than water.

What happens when you Google "food safe solder" or "potable solder"?

Reply to
Tim Wescott

The last time I bought solder from a home store, it was lead free, this was over 20 years ago. I don't think you can get leaded solder unless it's for electronic use. Even that has gone to RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) in electronic manufacture to non lead as pure tin. Ignator

Reply to
ignator

Use lead-free silver-tin solder:

The google search string that yielded the above was "wort copper solder".

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

Just use lead free solder, lot's of it out there.

Reply to
Steve W.

In fact if you go looking, that is virtually all you will find.

The only applications for 60/40 or 50/50 in plumbing any more is for drains, and copper and wiped lead and such are rarely being repaired, just ripped out and replaced with plastic.

Reply to
Gardner

Yes, there would be a problem with food contact, since it's too easy to over do it and have big drips and runs of solder on the inside you can't see - but that's okay, when you go looking for plumbing solder it's ALL going to be lead-free now by law, mostly Tin with a little Silver alloyed in.

Even electronics is being forced to get rid of the lead. They're going to get burned with $1 Billion satellites dying and falling from the sky due to Tin Whiskers causing shorts on circuit boards, but the few Rocket Scientists can't out-shout the many Enviro-Nuts.

There is also Silver-Braze if you need to stay away from Tin too - that's mostly Copper and Silver. You need a little more heat, but MAPP and Air-Acetylene will get there for smaller sizes.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman (munged human

The problem is the heat increases the amount of lead dissolving in the brew. I remember as a kid in the early 50's my father explicitly telling me do not use the hot tap water for anything you eat or drink.

John

Steve B wrote:

Reply to
john

Aerospace, military and medical applications are exempt from ROHS lead free solder. They know that it's worthless shit, and that it will kill people in mission critical applications. It was the idea of idiot bureaucrats in Brussels with no science to back it up.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Was the water distilled or acidic? If not, the minerals in the water build up a layer over the walls of the pipe that covered the solder and the copper. If it didn't, the water would dissolve not only the lead, but the copper pipe.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Thank Lord for that. That lead-free stuff just does not flow nearly as well.

OTOH maybe I shall start hoarding just in case.

Michael Koblic, Campbell River, BC

Reply to
mkoblic

I'm down to about 5 pounds. I used to use that much a year. Now it's $30/Lb, and up for decent solder.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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