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Not zero

Two figures, and the smaller is for solder

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page14
The joint is held tighter than the system.

For solder and flux

Not containing more than 0.2 percent lead. A flat limit on the material itself with no averaging in it.

For pipes and fittings

Not more than a weighted average of 0.25 percent lead with respect to the wetted surfaces of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings and fixtures.

So the two halves of the definition work differently

One is a composition limit on a material and the other is an area-weighted average across an assembly.

Which is more than a difference of 0.05 percent

It is a difference in what is being measured. A solder limit is about the alloy; a fitting limit is about a surface.

And solder gets the tighter number

0.2 against 0.25, which is the opposite of what averaging would produce if the solder were simply folded into the assembly.

There is a reason to treat a joint separately

A soldered joint is a small area in high-velocity contact with water, and averaging it into a large fitting would dilute it to nothing.

So the definition prevents exactly that

By giving solder its own flat limit rather than a share of a weighted average.

Flux is included with solder

Which is the material that cleans the joint and is mostly consumed. It is named alongside solder and takes the same 0.2 percent figure.

Neither figure is zero

Which is the thing to carry away. Lead free is a defined threshold in both halves of the definition.

And the words are the term being defined

The statute is defining what lead free means for its own purposes, which is why the ordinary reading of the words is not the operative one.

Which recurs across this library

The coffee and spice property finds that garlic is not a spice, and the adjacent botanicals property finds that new means not marketed before a date in 1994.

Three defined terms that do not mean what they say

And in each case the definition is short, quotable and completely different from the plain sense.

Read the definition, not the phrase

Which is the standing lesson and this is one of its cleanest examples.

References

42 U.S.C. 300g-6(d), the definition of lead free. For solder and flux, "not containing more than 0.2 percent lead". For pipes and fittings, "not more than a weighted average of 0.25 percent lead when used with respect to the wetted surfaces of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and fixtures." This is a definition from the Safe Drinking Water Act; nothing on these pages describes what the Act prohibits, where it applies, the exemptions, the certification or the effective dates, or determines whether any article is lead free. law.cornell.edu
Written from 42 U.S.C. 300g-6(d) and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. That is a definition from the Safe Drinking Water Act and nothing here describes what the Act prohibits, where it applies, the exemptions, the certification or the effective dates, or determines whether any article is lead free. A weighted average over wetted surfaces is computed for a particular assembly and no computation is performed here. This shelf is shared identically by nine groups and the sewing notions property enumerates the inventory.