My First Lead Test

Many like to post about a first successful ferment (or first all grain mash), or first still built/bought or first good run of the still. Tell us about all of these great times here.
Pics are VERY welcome, we drool over pretty copper 8)

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jimmydean041
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My First Lead Test

Post by jimmydean041 »

Hello all,

So I have a copper pot still, I purchased through amazon a little while ago. I have made one spirit run through this thing and am aging some whiskey as we speak.

Another user on this forum posted about their similar looking pot still and doing a lead-test on its solder joints. Not something that crossed my mind but hey, I plan on using this thing for a while and figured you never know where something is made from and by who so let's test it.

I bought some lead test swabs also on Amazon. You wet it with water, rub the swab on your test area for 30 seconds and look for color changes.

I tested the first solder joint and noticed a slight color change, indicating some lead presence. I then figured okay maybe I'll have to remove the old solder and put new lead-free solder on it. A pain but better than having to find a whole new still because I really did like how this one functioned when using it. I then decided to check the copper itself, on the outside of the onion head and the linnie arm. Holy cow did it change color indicating a very high lead content! Now I'm freaking out a little bit. I go and test a spot of the bare copper on the inside of the still, and nothing, no color change at all. I check another spot inside the linnie arm where it would connect to the condenser worm, an even larger color change! At this point I'm confused, the outside of the copper indicates lead, inside the same piece of copper no lead detected, different area tons of lead...

So I think to myself is there something with these test swabs? I go and find some bare copper pipes in my house that our drinking water runs through. I recently had some work done in the basement and had an exposed portion of pipe that had previously been wrapped in a insulating foam. I test the recently revealed bare copper. No lead present in the test. I check about 6 inches down the pipe, an area that has been exposed for a long time and has a good amount of copper patina on the outside of it. The same pipe with the patina showed a very high lead concentration with these swabs. So I'm wondering if the active ingredient in this swab is reacting somehow with copper oxides and not actually lead. Or do copper oxides somehow contain a higher proportion of lead? Do it somehow pull more lead to the surface if it's present in the base copper? The same thing happens with Chrome in certain stainless steels, but I'm not a copper expert.

I ordered some different lead tests, a 3M product. These ones you break a glass ampule inside of a tube and rub on the test surface. It will be here middle of the week so I'll see what these tests show.

Has anyone else had similar issues with other types of lead test kits showing false positives on copper? Or atleast have you used the 3M lead tests with good reliable results?

The good thing, other than some miniscule tasting to know where to make my cuts I haven't really consumed any of the first spirit run off of this still.

Thanks for your advice,

Jim
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Dancing4dan
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Re: My First Lead Test

Post by Dancing4dan »

Normally you need a clean sample.
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