Anyone else have an issue with solder taking to these lead free fittings? I hhave been doing this work for almost 40 years and have never had problems with my solder joints until these came along. Am I getting them too hot, not hot enough……I have a 50% failure rate which is really pi$$ing me off. Been dealing with it since they came out but decided to ask around

what are you using for solder?
i use silvabrite 100.
i do have to pay strict attention when soldering not to overheat.

you need 0.5 - 1.5 % silver bearing solder


do NOT overheat



OR


use 95-5 solder

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

I use lead free tinning flux.

Your not alone

I'm not in the trade but am pretty good at soldering copper pipes. I've found that the new lead-free solder has a much narrower working temp range, meaning that the melting temp of the solder is higher, but the boiling point of the flux is the same.

Once the joint is hot and solder starts to run, remove the heat immediately. If the solder starts to cool before it's run the whole joint, re-apply heat just until the solder melts again, then remove the heat again. This helps moderate the temp of the joint and keep it at a point where the solder is running but the flux isn't boiling.

The old solder with lead melted at a lower temp, so you could keep heat on the joint until the solder was done running without worrying about boiling the flux. Not so today, if you keep the heat on after the solder starts to run, the flux will boil away and you'll have a leaker.

I've only 1 or 2 bad joints out of hundreds I've soldered since using this method.