vintage computers and lead poisoning?

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Sun Jun 6 12:13:22 2004

At 05:45 PM 6/6/04 +0100, you wrote:
>At 11:16 06/06/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>Hmmm... do they call black iron pipe lead pipe as well? Most likely.
>> >From what I've read, the new black iron pipe isn't threaded, and gets
>>connected with fittings that will most likely wear out well before the
>>pipe does. Seems to me that the goal is not to build houses with
>>piping that lasts, but piping that provides plumbers with good
>>incomes.
>
>My father took on a modern shoe-box a few years ago as part-ex for the sale
>of their old house; they rent it out now, but the plumbing caused no end of
>problems. All the pipework on the central heating system was plastic, with
>fittings glued to the pipes. Of course, pumping very hot water around
>quickly (in terms of life of a house, even these shoddy ones) caused the
>plastic to go brittle, and all it took was a radiator pipe being bumped
>with a vacuum cleaner to break one... this was after a hot water pipe to
>the kitchen sink ballooned up before bursting...
>
>He had it completely re-done in copper pipe in the end.. No problems since!


   He's lucky! They use copper around here and about ten years ago they
started coming out with some kind of very thin wall stuff. Houses have been
springing leaks left and right! My mother-in-law has had about six major
leaks in the last five years. They've had to tear big holes in the walls to
get to the leaks to fix them (not to mention the water damage). The
plumbers have told her that the next time it happens that she needs to have
the entire house replumbed. One brand new house in my mother's area was
condemmed due to the number of leaks and the amount of damage that they
caused.

   I'm not critisizing copper pipe, that's what I have. But there have been
a LOT of problems with it in this area in the last ten years or so due to
the poor quality of the pipe.

   Joe
Received on Sun Jun 06 2004 - 12:13:22 BST