Low lead shower diverter options w/ flow control

[jrbe]

Short version is I'm looking for a tub / shower diverter that contains .25% lead or less. Seems shower diverters are exempt from NSF 61 and prop 65 (not for drinking water.) If I'm wrong on that please correct me.

I'd be all for trying a polypropylene or polyethylene shower diverter if anyone makes them.

Long version is that we have well water that tested over limit on uranium, no lead in the initial test. There aren't great affordable options on removing uranium from drinking water. We ended up doing a whole house reverse osmosis system. Then getting the water tested it showed 6x the limit for lead and above limit for copper. We had copper piping with leaded solder. House was built in 1986.
I switched the whole house over to pex and replumbed copper into the furnace for 4' in and out with lead free solder and low lead mixing valve. Used john guest pp or pe fittings and Tees in accessible places (access doors in key distribution places) to avoid using brass pex Tees in walls (that whole dezincification failure thing and the ?? lead content in them.)
Water tested well below all levels, and this time LSI rating and Ryzner index were both tested/calculated. LSI was -4.6 and Ryzner is 15.6 S.U. TDS shows "001" on my meter and tested as <20mg/L. I realize I need to get the water less reactive. Planning on adding calcite and some magnesium to the ro water to help it be less reactive but want a diverter I dont have to worry about leaching lead into the water supply if the additives get low. Struggling with finding a low / no lead diverter and really want one with flow control.

 

[Jadnashua]

A diverter valve in a shower is not likely to leach water into your drinking supply. Depending on how it is plumbed, except when in use, it may not be in contact with water at all! Then, that water is not generally being drunk.

As you found, RO can make some pretty aggressive water...water's nickname is the universal solvent...given enough time, it will dissolve most anything, but we're talking potentially eons, way beyond our lifespan for many things.

 

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[PorcelainVacation]

How about forgoing the diverter and just using a separate mixer valve for the shower? The tub fill would have it's own separate mixer from the shower. It shouldn't cost much more, and you would have many more trim options.

 

[jrbe]

I get you dont normally drink shower water, but being a tub we will bathe in it.
To be fair I haven't looked at the chemistry behind it but I know as it sits it will leach lead. Does that leached lead dry on the tub?
I saw the lead issue from solder joints. I get this is sort of different. Brass can fail from dezincification from reactive water. I know it will leach lead just don't know how much. I don't really want to have that experiment with my family.

So all the how / why / it's not a big deal stuff aside, really trying to find a low /no lead diverter.

Porcelainvacation, I don't think I'm following what you mean. Seems like what you're proposing is extra brass in the system.

 

[Jadnashua]

Ingesting lead (drinking it in the water or eating old leaded paint chips - the big thing in old buildings when leaded paint was still being used) are the issues...at least from what I've read, bathing in it isn't an issue. Keep in mind that the lead, if it exists, is mostly flushed out in the first few seconds each time you open the tap. I doubt you could easily detect any at all in the line from a valve after the first 30-seconds of water flowing. The problem in Flint, MI was there was lead along the entire supply lines, and the water company decided to not keep adding the required treatment to keep it passivated (locked in place). My guess is that during the time you have the tap open to warm the flow up (and that goes down the drain), by the time it warms up, there is no measurable lead left from any valve that may be in the system.