Brass Fitting

[dutchy88]

Gday all,

Building my first pot still and im having trouble finding copper fittings for my condenser theres plenty of brass fitting is brass ok to use? I have a copper coil but just not a copper fitting its a small half inch screw in in brass fitting to go into rhe top of my still

[bellybuster]

Brass is ok, if it is not lead free brass, look up pickling and consider tinning with solder

[Cardinalbags]

Brass can contain lead. Brass fittings and castings in North America (probably elsewhere as well) are supposed to be lead free.

What that means is they cannot add into the mix in new recipes of the metal. The problem is they recycle old brass into new castings and fittings and the old stuff will contain lead.... it just made the alloy easier to machine back then.

Some say pickle the brass in a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water for 15 minutes.... some say the amount of lead that leaches out is less than what you have in your tap water.... some are skeptical that you even leach lead at all.

At the end of the day, you can research it and see if you are ok with it, or you can get on amazon or fleabay and find any damned thing you need.

Personally, I started with brass needle valves and reducers for thermo ports. They all got switched out for SS swagelok fittings and SS needle valves.

[NZChris]

Been using brass fittings to my condenser for thirty years. Maybe that explains something. LOL

The contact area of the few brass fittings in my stills is tiny. I'm sure I get more trouble from 'er indoors' than from lead in my fittings.

[dutchy88]

Rito boys cheers for tips ill look into it.

[heartcut]

Lead test kits are available cheap in the US, probably lots of other places. The standard for plumbing fittings is very low. T&S advertizes 0.5% lead in their fittings. However, I use ss or copper.
The 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act mandated not more than 8% lead in copper and brass used for potable water(!), don't know how much good that does. I'd look for a stamp stating compliance to ANSI/NSF Standard 61, that's an extraction test done with DI water for 3 weeks.

[humbledore]

On pickling, this is what I learned from howtobrew.com. Please note it is not just hydrogen peroxide, it is a mix of that and vinegar. This web resource was so good I bought the book.

Cleaning Brass
Some brewers use brass fittings in conjunction with their wort chillers or other brewing equipment and are concerned about the lead that is present in brass alloys. A solution of two parts white vinegar to one part hydrogen peroxide (common 3% solution) will remove tarnish and surface lead from brass parts when they are soaked for 5 minutes or less at room temperature. The brass will turn a buttery yellow color as it is cleaned. If the solution starts to turn green and the brass darkens, then the parts have been soaking too long and the copper in the brass is beginning to dissolve, exposing more lead. The solution has become contaminated and the part should be re-cleaned in a fresh solution.

[friendly1uk]

When it says lead free, it isn't. It is just below the allowable threshold. This threshold varies globally, and even state to state. Calli demands the least.

I would silver solder over it. Pickling is hit and miss and can do more harm than good. As seen from samples sent in by HD members.

[akcom]

Hi all. As a medicinal chemist, I'd like to clear up some confusion. First and foremost, we need to talk about the different forms of lead. Lead in your brass fittings is elemental (metal) lead. Chemists would call this Pb(0). Over time, when exposed to moist air, the lead surface "corrodes" and is oxidized to lead oxide (Pb(II)O) and lead hydroxide (Pb(II)OH). This are lead compounds that would look like white crystalline powders. So now that we have this information, we can move on:

How does that lead end up in my water/whiskey?
Basically what you need to know is this: lead, in almost all of its forms, is practically insoluble in water AND ethanol. Even at elevated temperatures (ie during distillation)! If the lead isn't soluble, it can't end up in your hooch.

The only form of lead that is soluble in water/ethanol (outside of the exotic kinds only used in a lab) is lead acetate. And how do we get lead acetate? We expose lead metal to hydrogen peroxide and vinegar (acetic acid). Sound familiar? That's the process of pickling. All that pickling does is make the lead soluble in water so it can be rinsed off. BUT if you don't pickle your lead, it simply **will not** dissolve in your water or alcohol to any appreciable amount. That means it stays in your brass fitting and will not harm you.

How much lead is too much?
Did you know that the average human body contains 120mg of lead already? Fish can also contain small amounts of lead. So while I wouldn't suggest going out and gulping down lead pellets, the point is this: You'd need 1700 gallons of water to dissolve just the amount of lead inside you already right now. That's crazy isn't it? You'd need even more alcohol since lead hydroxide/acetate is _less_ soluble in alcohol. So the fact of the matter is, you're completely safe using brass fitting, pickling or no pickling.

sources:
http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/water/ ... -water.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/twelft ... s/Lead.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[aquavita]

AKCom =

Thank you for a real world valuation.

Just like the fact that Dihydrogen monooxide is responsible for more 9 deaths daily in the United States and over 1,000 each day globally.

We really should ban this stuff.

JTL