At least three kinds of faucets are in use in a household, including kitchen faucets, basin faucets, single-cooling faucets, etc. Among them, the kitchen faucet is crucial to daily water health. The kitchen faucet is related to everyday water health; there are brass faucet, stainless steel faucet, zinc alloy faucet, and even plastic faucet on the market; which material to choose in the end? What is the reason for the dripping and leaking faucets after some time? Should I get a new mixer?
PS: [Faucet] This category will be divided into the material, spool, and technology to share; interested partners, remember to continue to pay attention to me.
1、Internal structure of the faucet
The faucet is divided into the body, the spool, and the surface, just like the human body, the heart, and the exterior. Understanding the structure is not a waste of time, but once you know the three essential parts of a mixer, you will have a point of comparison to choose from.
2. How the mixer works
Knowing the construction, I wondered how the parts work together and searched for information on how a mixer works.
Someone might jump up and say, “I’m buying a mixer, not making one, so why do I need to know how it works? The more you know, the more you know what’s worth buying!
For those of you who love to dig in, look at the following video, or skip to the summary if you don’t want to.
To sum up: The video clearly shows that water flows out through the spool at the handle as you turn the handle. So the key to selection is the material and the spool.
Suppose the main body is not made of good material. In that case, the water that comes out is likely to contain metallic contaminants, the heavy metals that we all worry about, such as lead, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic.
I always thought that a leaky faucet resulted from a tight or loose handle that didn’t close properly. Now I realize that in addition to a tightly closed handle, it is more likely that you have bought a faucet with a low-quality spool.
3. The material of the faucet
The most common materials on the market are copper, stainless steel, zinc alloys, and copper, which is currently the mainstream material for faucets made of copper in Europe and the USA.
There is a more in-depth analysis of copper, and it turns out that copper faucets are not 100% copper but a copper alloy. Domestic quality faucets generally use H59 copper, that is, copper content of 59%, lead content of less than 1.9% copper, this is the national standard of 59 copper, can use 59 copper business has a very conscience.
Please note the following, friends! Vigilance!
Situation 1: If a merchant says that his faucets are made of pure copper, he must be ignored.
Pure copper refers to copper that has been technically refined to a purity of 99.5% or more. Pure copper is a soft metal that is not easy to cut, so it is unlikely that a merchant will take pure copper to make a faucet.
Case 2: Merchants say the faucet is all copper and the price is amicable, under 100 RMB, so don’t be fooled by the price.
According to international copper prices, 1 ton of brass to 68,000 yuan or more, so according to industry standards, a faucet with about 500 g of copper, a faucet light copper cost is almost 34 yuan, plus the valve core, bubbler, labor, processing costs, freight, water and electricity, standard copper faucets, direct manufacturing costs will not be less than 100 yuan. On the market, those so-called “all copper” faucet many are second-hand recycling copper or lead content enormously exceeds the standard copper.
4, Talk about “lead” color change, all say copper faucet right, lead even did not tell me!
We all know the dangers of heavy metals to our health, so when you learn that copper faucets contain lead, you stay away from them and buy stainless steel ones instead. I want to say that you should be rational about copper faucets that have “lead.”
Brass is a copper-zinc alloy, and when brass is used to forge faucets, a small amount of lead is mixed into it.
Why does lead have to be mixed in when it is so harmful to the human body? The manufacturers are so unethical!
This is because the addition of lead significantly improves brass castings’ machinability; information is not soluble in copper and zinc alloys. Still, it can play an excellent lubricating effect. If not mixed with lead, the manufacture of faucets will become very difficult; the bottom will not be made in the first place. The authority will form a thin film of oxide when it meets air on the outside of the faucet and peel off when it meets water, making the lead dissolve in the water, causing it to separate and affect our health.
Therefore, high-quality brass faucets are washed with lead at the end of the manufacturing process. The lead content is negligible, in line with national standards, and large brands generally have higher corporate standards.
What is net leaded copper, low leaded copper, lead-free copper?
The big brand names are promoting “clean copper,” “low lead copper,” and “lead-free copper.”
The term “lead-free copper” does not mean zero lead content, just less than 0.3%. Don’t be misled by the literal meaning of the phrase; I wonder if the merchants promoting “lead-free” are trying to mislead consumers at heart?
The term “low lead copper” was first used in the USA, where the standard is 0.25% copper content, and “net lead copper” means the same thing as “low lead copper,” although the terminology is different.
Brass, stainless steel, zinc alloy, which is the best material for faucets?
I was summing up.
It is recommended to buy faucets made of brass and stainless steel, as many major international brands are made of brass, so brass faucets are even more recommended. Furthermore, copper’s surface plating is brighter than that of 304 stainless steel, so it has a better sense of quality.
