Need soldering info.

[Anonymous]

I am installing a new water heater. I have sweated the input joints ok but the outlet joints (6) pcs. have been driving me nuts. I have cleaned them and redone them 3 – 4 times and still end up with a leak. Too much heat? Any input appreciated!

[hjParticipant]

Are you leaving something loose to allow the air expansion to be relieved? If not heating the pipe will cause the air to blow out of the joint causing the leak. Are you using flux and plumber’s solder, or an acid core solder? If the latter, it will not work.

[jack spotzParticipant]

hj is correct, im surprised he didnt say plumbers flux though, buy that stuff from a plumber, don’t think they havent seen a do it yourselfer before. leaving something loose can be as simple as opening all your hot faucets to allow steam to escape instead of build pressure and blow out your joint. take your time, DONT try to solder a joint with even a little water in it, it cant work. also as far as over heating, when the solder WILL melt, GO. if it takes more than 20-30 seconds you’ve got water again. stop and pull the joint apart and reflux and try again.

[SylvanLMPParticipant]

I hope youtr not soldering too close to the tank (6″ min) or atleast use a heat sink. If you have a slight drip and find soldering dificult try this. Get a
dielectric union one side IPS the other side copper. Prefab all the copper joints away from the tank, Then even if water is slightly dripping you still can solder a joint on the open union using a silver bearing solder as opposed to 95-5 (tin antimoney) which requires alot more temperature. Good luck

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SylvanLMP

[CyParticipant]

Thanks for the good advise. The parts are being assembled in my bench vise, I use wood slats in the jaws so as not to suck away heat. They are dry as Brit humor, eh. I am using 95/5 lead free solder & Harvey’s paste applied with an acid brush, all bought new in Nov.

[SylvanLMPParticipant]

I didnt know the BRITS had ANY humor?

live and learn Us NYC folks learn every day LOL Glad we could be of some help Sylvan

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SylvanLMP

[CyParticipant]

Once again I took all (5) pieses apart and cleaned them one at a time. I noticed that there were large areas on mating surfaces not tinned. I heated, fluxed and wiped with a clean cloth and attempted to tin the surface again with no luck. After repeated attempts I finally got it to tin and put the asy together with NO leaks. I think the flux SUCKS! Is there a “shelf life” for flux? Seems I have run into this some time long ago. Thanks for the input!!

[Author]

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