Solder question (on household copper pipe)

[PILOON]

I am surprised you use solder. All plumbers I know here use silver solder. Stronger I guess.

I believe lead solder was banned some time back due to the 'lead poisonings' issue as was all lead piping.
(Not that toilet water would consumed.)

 

[LouNY]

I believe lead solder was banned some time back due to the 'lead poisonings' issue as was all lead piping.
(Not that toilet water would consumed.)

I do believe that you are correct.
Most 95/5 solder for plumbing is 95% Tin and 5 % Antimony, no lead what so ever.
33176 - Harris 33176 - 95/5 Lead Free Wire Solder 1 lb. Spool - (95% Tin - 5% Antimony)

 

[Richard]

Sorry to hear about your issues, but it is consistent with the plumbing experiences I have had. Don't get me wrong; I have worked with great plumbers in the past, but right now, locally, I can't seem to find any, well for lack of a better term, talented ones.

I am in the process of converting bad (thin) copper to PEX. I think it is the way to go, especially if you use the Upnor / ProPEX band clamp system, where you get full flow. The only problem is you need a really expensive tool to install it.

Off topic a little: I'm kinda curious. You say your well is 100gpm. Do you actually pump it out at that rate? If so, what do use that much water for?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a 100gpm well.

All the best,

Peter

Regarding the well.... when it was drilled, his paperwork (certification??) has it at either 103 or 107 GPM. Seems we are near or direct hit in an underground spring (that my wife and locals know about as it used to dump to a waterwheel to a creek but now, has been dammed down stream and is a full blown lake)

Anyway, I tried once to measure my actual flow INSIDE and to be blunt, it was a fail. I was trying to fill a bucket for 30 seconds...and I think I had to back it off to 15 seconds.... but according to my chalkboard math, my flow in the house at the pressure tank (then via hose to outdoors) was something like 20-30 gallons/minute. It's probably been 15 years since I've done that so I might be way off target.... but our source is good.

The wife was very eco-friendly in the beginning, trying to put water savers everywhere.... I told her to look at it this way....."We're on a well. It provides over 100 gallons/minute. At MOST we can only use (let's just say) 30 gallons a minute......so for every minute that we are NOT maximizing our use, we are letting 70 or more gallons go by (and get dumped into the lake ultimately)


When they hit our well, he said it was like the old movies when they hit an oil well and the oil just blows into the sky creating a geyser. (perhaps dramatic but that's what he said)


Given all that, I DO wish they'd let me know more options and maybe put in a larger supply line as I'd love to do an irrigation for my yard. I've already done an irrigation system for the wife's flower gardens.


Three houses here on the farm. My wife's (both now deceased) fathers house and her uncle's house. I don't know their flow rates....I think fathers is something like 8-15 gallons/minute and her uncle (who is closer to us) is something like 3-6 gallons/minute. I don't know how accurate these are BUT, her uncle's house HAS in fact gone dry more than once, losing its prime. So I feel fortunate that we found the main artery with ours.

 

[ponytug]

You are very lucky! Sounds amazing.

My grandfather had an artesian well like that. Wonderful water and lots of it.

Thanks for filling in the details.

All the best,

Peter