How to solder a gas water heater?

In the process of operation of gas columns often appears a leak, which can be eliminated by your own efforts. If you do not want to pay a master and know how to handle a soldering iron, you can independently solder the speaker, closing the formed micro-holes.

The most common cause of a leaky gas water heater is a damaged copper heat exchanger. This is usually due to the low quality of copper, of which this part is made. In places where there are impurities, the walls of the heat exchanger over time are oxidized, which leads to leaks.

To solder the column with your own hands, prepare:

• Soldering iron or a gas torch.
• Fine-grained sandpaper or metal brush.
• Solder. For copper parts, use wire solder PIC-61, which is an alloy of lead and tin.
• Rag.

The easiest way to solder a copper heat exchanger will be to use a soldering iron.

However, there are limitations to its use:

• You can only use a soldering iron if there is minimal damage to the heat exchanger.
• You will be able to solder with this tool only a thin-walled element.

Before soldering, you should drain the water from the column. Also for this job, some preparation must be done on the surface, which has taken on a greenish tint at the oxidation point. Take sandpaper or a metal brush and scrape the surface to remove any irregularities or burrs. After wiping everything dry with a rag, carefully coat the heat exchanger in the right place with a special solder, and then use the soldering iron, making sure that the solder fills the damaged area evenly.

If your speaker has a massive heat exchanger, characterized by high thermal conductivity, it is recommended to solder with a torch. Preparatory work in this case will not differ from soldering with a soldering iron - the surface must be thoroughly cleaned, flat and dry. Then soldering is done with a propane torch, which creates a contact flame with a temperature of up to 2500.

The video below clearly shows the entire soldering process using a gas torch.