Soldering lead free brass video

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hj

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Recently someone stated they were having problems with "pinholes" in their solder joints with the new lead free brass fittings. That material requires a different soldering technique which is shown in


www.youtube.com/user/coppervideo or as a whitepaper, "Recommended practices for soldering no-lead copper alloys", downloaded from www.copper.org
 
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Sluggo

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Great video. Thank you, hj
Recently someone stated they were having problems with "pinholes" in their solder joints with the new lead free brass fittings. That material requires a different soldering technique which is shown in


www.youtube.com/user/coppervideo or as a whitepaper, "Recommended practices for soldering no-lead copper alloys", downloaded from www.copper.org
hj-
Thanks much. I'm someone who has done a lot of sweat soldering over the last 30 years, and think I'm pretty good at it, but I could see some failed joints in my future if you hadn't provided this video.

One question: Does this mean that any time I now buy a brass fitting from a plumbing supply place or a big box store that it will be one of these more difficult to solder items?
 

DougB

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Recently someone stated they were having problems with "pinholes" in their solder joints with the new lead free brass fittings. That material requires a different soldering technique which is shown in

I've soldered many fittings for HVAC as a teen and young adult. I was always taught to heat the fitting first. It sounds like the new material has a different coefficient of expansion than copper? Are they using regular 95/5 solder?

I'm certainly not going to argue about the content of the video - but that guy heated that copper pipe for what I'd consider a fairly long time - there's a chance you can get black scale from over heating the copper - when it reacts with the oxygen in the air. Then he comes around to the other side of the valve to solder the other side. That technique may not work in many places. I would have liked to see then solder the other end of the valve at the same time.
 

hj

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The ONLY brass items you can buy now SHOULD be the hard to solder materials. Overheating the copper will "burn" a water soluble flux, but the purpose of a flux is to PREVENT oxidation by contact with the air. Probably using "silver bearing" solder, because 95/5 is even harder to work with.
 

MrStop

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Thanks for sharing the video! I'm getting ready to solder up about a half dozen new valves + new pipe & fittings.

Do you have reco's on solder & flux that works better with the new fittings?
 

Chefwong

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OT, but what type of torch tip are they using.
It's seems quite small-focused.

Or maybe it's just the effect of the 1 1/4" pipe relative to the nozzle size
For this weekend warrior, 3/4 is generally the max size with either a 3T or 4T tip.
 

FullySprinklered

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I installed a kohler unleaded shower faucet maybe three weeks ago. I'm piping a new basement bathroom in crimp-ring Pex, so I soldered adapters into the faucet to connect to the new pipe.
I started having trouble with the soldering; I couldn't see the solder running around the joint the way I was used to seeing. The joint was also getting smutty.
The post about dealing with no-lead fixtures came to mind, so I began waving the torch around some and things got better. I remembered the pinhole issue being mentioned, but everything was fine when I finally put the water on it today.
I felt really proud getting this job. How many people can say they've worked a job roughed in by Helen Keller. That's another story.
 

GoldMaple

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Hello,

I was going to create a new post but my issue could very well be related to these new lead free fittings. I just fitted all the pieces for my new bathtub and was soldering the together. When I soldered a piece of copper pipe to my brass tub spout elbow I was confused when the elbow simply fell off the pipe! Inside the brass fitting there was a coating of solder, as was there on the outside of the copper pipe. I watched this video and suppose that is my problem. I now have a few questions....Can I reuse the same copper pipe and fitting? If so, do I need flux again? Or just heat it up and add more solder? Please advise. Thank you.
 

Terry

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It's best anytime you resolder, to clean the pipe and fittings, and reflux.
If you are soldering a brass fitting copper it can drop off while heating. I normally heat those on the horizontal before turning them upright.
You can egg the pipe a bit with pliers and the push the fitting on before soldering. That may keep the fitting until you are done.
 

GoldMaple

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Hello,

So I tried to solder this elbow again. Like you recommended I cleaned it up and used more flux. Again, the brass elbow just slid off. I have never experienced anything like this. So, what the heck.... I try the other side of the elbow with the other end of the small copper pipe. Heated it a long time, like the video above.... It just slipped right off... The elbow had "NL" etched into it so I'm thinking that stands for no lead. I gave up on that brass elbow and used a copper one. At this point I'm just wondering if all "no lead" fittings are marked because I would sure like to know so I never buy one again....Thanks
 

keithhe

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I had found this video about a year ago when I was repeatedly getting a failed solder joint and thought I was loosing my mind. I had been soldering/sweating copper enough over 30 years to believe something odd was happening. After watching the video and doing it counter to how I had ever been taught it worked fine.
 
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