John Rumm coughed up some electrons that declared:

YAPH wrote:
On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:04:14 +0000, Tim S wrote:

[1] I might as well ask now it's come up - is Fluxite (old fashioned
brown stuff) considered gas safe, together with a 60/40 solder?

No! [throws book :-)]

It must be heat-activated flux like LaCo and Fernox stuff - should say on
the tin that it's OK for gas work. AIUI the idea is that the flux is only

"Must" or "preferred"? I have always used Fry metals Powerflow which
claims to be suitable for Gas[1], but I was not aware of that being heat
activated particularly - its mildly acidic and certainly cleans copper
on contact. (the residue if left on the outside of a pipe will usually
encourage verdigris, but does not seem to etch or corrode the copper
even after time).


BES description is "Paste flux for copper and brass fittings for water,
heating and gas services. British Gas plc, WRc plc approved."

Personally I can't see many standard fluxes eating right through dry copper
pipe (it's quite thick) in any reasonable timescale...

but...

The reason I asked, is that, if I did solder a gas pipe, I'd rather do it by
the book, even if the book is a bit *nal

For the same reason you must apply flux to the pipe only, and not inside
the fitting.

Never really found that necessary in other circumstances either. Perhaps
because I keep my spare fittings nice and clean in a box or bag...

And electrical solder would be out simply because it's not approved for
gas work.

I assume that Tim probably meant 40/60 (ish) rather than 60/40 eutectic.

Erm, yes. Silly typo. Next time I'll just say "leaded plumbing solder", as
opposed to unleaded.

Cheers

Tim