Is kester 60/40 solder ok to use

backwaterdogs · Jan 1, 2008

Hello,

I am about to sweat some joints in a small job I have (shower valve) and have an old roll of solder I got w/ some other stuff at auction.

The solder is Kester brand and 60/40 ( assume 60% lead), w/ Nosput flux. Core says 66 and diameter is .080.

Not sure what the core number implies....but given that this will only be on a shower...will this solder be good for leak free joints?

Thanks very much!

Wet_Boots · Jan 1, 2008

Save it for a Radio Shack kit. That's electronics solder. You use your lead-free solder for that shower valve.

Sponsor · 2022-01-29T12:20:58-0800

backwaterdogs · Jan 1, 2008

will do, thanks very much!!!

hj · Jan 1, 2008

solder

You cannot use core solder for sweat joints if you do not want leaks. The second thing is that you need lead free solder to make Ralph Nader and California happy.

Soldered with No-Lead Solder

GrumpyPlumber · Jan 1, 2008

NEVER, EVER use leaded solder on your potable water.
In one word...backflow.

Just to put it in perspective...there is a theory that use of lead cookware & water containment was partially responsible for the fall of the Roman empire...no joke.
(though I'm sure there will be a few to come)

backwaterdogs · Jan 1, 2008

Wow....I am sure glad I asked....was just about to save myself a trip to the hardware store and use what I had on had.

I didn't realize the lead could get through the rest of the house from the shower valve...via backwashing.

Thanks very much!

Redwood · Jan 1, 2008

You will also need flux and plumbers cloth to properly prepare the joint for sweating... What is this small project you are doing on the shower? Have you ever sweat pipe before and do you have any idea how its done... I strongly recomend that you learn before shutting off the water and trying it for the first time.

GrumpyPlumber · Jan 1, 2008

Redwood said:
You will also need flux and plumbers cloth to properly prepare the joint for sweating... What is this small project you are doing on the shower? Have you ever sweat pipe before and do you have any idea how its done... I strongly recomend that you learn before shutting off the water and trying it for the first time.

LOL...ya think?

Redwood · Jan 1, 2008

LOL I don't have any idea what makes me think that...

Its probably a little project like taking out a Delta 1700 that is dripping and installing a 3 handle glacier bay unit in its place...

Gawd, I see a train wreck happening!

Herk · Jan 1, 2008

Redwood said:
Gawd, I see a train wreck happening!

Buy 'em books and buy 'em books and all they do is eat the covers . . .

Bob NH · Jan 1, 2008

When you make that trip to the hardware store, or HD, get some Oatey No. 95 or No. 5 self-tinning flux. It will probably save you at least one leaking joint.

hj · Jan 2, 2008

solder

I didn't realize the lead could get through the rest of the house from the shower valve...via backwashing.

Actually it probably wouldn't because your solder joint would expose a minimal amount of the solder to the water, asssuming you did a real good joint. If you did a bad one, no solder would be exposed to the water. In addition, after a very short time a patina would develop which would encase any exposed solder and isolate it from the water. You would have a better chance of getting lead into your water from the brass valves, and even then I have never heard of any valve failing because it lost its metal.

Jimbo · Jan 2, 2008

I don't remember at the time they shifted from lead solder.....were there actually any tests that showed significant lead leaching into the water from the pipes.....or was it just that there was a possibility, so let's get the lead out??????

Bob NH · Jan 2, 2008

Lead is illegal in potable water systems, including showers. That doesn't mean that you will ever have a real problem.

Lead may be a problem with water running out of the kitchen faucet if you drink the water first thing in the morning, and with new pipes, without letting any run down the drain. They test for lead by taking a "first flow sample" and base the requirement on the assumption that your children will drink water with high lead content from birth. It is as much as political thing as anything else.

Lead from a normal installation is virtually undetectable but the EPA hasn't much else to do so they make no-lead-solder rules assuming that the worst case condition applies to every drop of water that comes out of a faucet, and every drop that your baby drinks is coming from that faucet.

Alternety · Jan 2, 2008

Just for a bit of further insight. The world is on an anti-lead crusade. Europe passed a set of regulations prohibiting lead (and other things) from electronics. Thus the world is switching so they don't have to make two sets of everything (w/wo lead). China (particularly the toy makers) seem to have solved this by just using lead for everything.

Unfortunately electronic no lead solder is sort of like banning the green treated wood and later finding out that the replacement brown treated wood eats steel (e.g., the lag bolts that hold the deck on the house). Solder without lead creates little tiny whiskers of metal that are big enough to short things out at the scale of modern circuit spacing. There are some other issues but that is the one with the most bite.

One of the things that happens to some old electronics is they wind up in a stream in China and leach lots of nasties. Stopping this is good.

interalian · Jan 2, 2008

alternety said:
Just for a bit of further insight. The world is on an anti-lead crusade. Europe passed a set of regulations prohibiting lead (and other things) from electronics. Thus the world is switching so they don't have to make two sets of everything (w/wo lead). China (particularly the toy makers) seem to have solved this by just using lead for everything.

Unfortunately electronic no lead solder is sort of like banning the green treated wood and later finding out that the replacement brown treated wood eats steel (e.g., the lag bolts that hold the deck on the house). Solder without lead creates little tiny whiskers of metal that are big enough to short things out at the scale of modern circuit spacing. There are some other issues but that is the one with the most bite.

One of the things that happens to some old electronics is they wind up in a stream in China and leach lots of nasties. Stopping this is good.

Tell me about it. The company I work for is an electronics manufacturer and we went RoHS-6 compliant last year at great expense. Several US states are going down the same path as Europe (Cali for one). We do surface mount fine-pitch (TQFP, TSSOP, BGA, leadless flat-pack etc) as well as through-hole soldering on a mid-large scale. What fun.

GrumpyPlumber · Jan 2, 2008

jimbo said:
I don't remember at the time they shifted from lead solder.....were there actually any tests that showed significant lead leaching into the water from the pipes.....or was it just that there was a possibility, so let's get the lead out??????

Yes, you can go into an old house that still has lead solder and the water test will show it.

As for back flow, if it weren't an issue we wouldn't be concerned with air gaps/anti siphons/vacuum breakers on tub spouts, kitchen sprayers or hose bibs if it weren't an issue.
I said something above about the Romans, I wasn't kidding, here's an EPA website quote, with a link to the page that explains it below:
"The Romans were aware that lead could cause serious health problems, even madness and death. However, they were so fond of its diverse uses that they minimized the hazards it posed. Romans of yesteryear, like Americans of today, equated limited exposure to lead with limited risk. What they did not realize was that their everyday low-level exposure to the metal rendered them vulnerable to chronic lead poisoning, even while it spared them the full horrors of acute lead poisoning."
http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm

Mikept · Apr 1, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_acetate#Historical_use

The romans didnt have sweet and low they used lead as a synthetic sweetener.

Ian Gills · Apr 2, 2008

But for the old-timers, what was it like to solder with lead solder?

Was it any better? The flow? the joint?

Let's leave aside the poisoning issue for the moment.

Jadnashua · Apr 2, 2008

Lead melts at a lower temperature, so shorter time with the torch to heat things up, and potentially more opportunity for it to flow where you don't want it to, or the joint to fall apart before it solidified.

Is kester 60/40 solder ok to use

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