Top 8 Benefits of Choosing Lead-Free Faucets for Your Home
Historically, many manufacturers have used Lead as an alloy mix in their plumbing fixtures. However, with advanced technology, these experts are maintaining quality and safety by complying with the EPA updated regulations, and are typically producing lead-free bathroom faucets, kitchen faucets, a kitchen sink and other plumbing fixtures. Even so, Lead can still find its way into your drinking water through corrosion of plumbing fixtures.
Lead can cause health problems if it is in greater amounts than the drinking water standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Astonishingly, 10 or 20% of human exposure to Lead is attributed to ingesting the mineral in drinking water. This caused the EPA to update its regulations, requiring that any plumbing installation process be lead-free by law.
Therefore, it is essential to take measures and acquire lead-free faucets. Before we discuss the benefits of using lead-free kitchen and bathroom faucets, let’s define lead-free kitchen faucets. Buckle up and dive in!
What Are Lead-Free Kitchen or Bathroom Faucets?
As seen, Lead can cause substantial damage to your health, and Infaucets Faucets has invested in low-lead manufacturing technology and advanced materials. Typically, their kitchen and bathroom faucets have a new alloy high-quality construction that reduces the amount of Lead but still does not compromise quality and style. Basically, proficient manufacturers use permanent metal casting molds rather than the less expensive sand casting method.
The casting molds are then preheated so that when solid Brass alloy is poured, it remains in liquid form. This advanced method can reduce the levels of Lead in the alloy mix, as the alloy has remained in liquid form for a longer time than traditional faucets, and ensure the casting’s form before hardening.
Additionally, other experts have gone a notch higher with this new alloy formulation to reduce small amounts of Lead even further by mixing the alloy with another element like bismuth that has the same qualities as Lead. This move has allowed the creation of kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, kitchen sinks, and ceramic disc valves, among other things, that are free from Lead.
Now, let’s look at some of the benefits of using Lead-free plumbing fixtures.
Benefits of Using Lead-Free A Kitchen and Bathroom Faucet
Alongside safety benefits, lead-free plumbing fixtures offer numerous advantages over standard faucets. Here are some of them.
Health and Environmental Benefits
Using lead-free faucets will protect your health and family from contamination. They ensure that the water flowing from your taps is safe from harmful minerals that could cause health problems in the long run. Additionally, installing faucets with eco-friendly features would also reduce environmental impact.
By doing so, you’re contributing to a more sustainable future and reducing your home’s environmental impact.
Water Quality and Taste
Another luxury of using lead-free water flow control equipment is better water taste and odor. Unlike standard faucets, lead-free faucets reduce minerals that carry unwanted odors, making your drinking and cooking water taste better and more enjoyable.
With the right faucet, homeowners can trust that their water is safe from contaminants, ensuring a healthier household.
Durability and Performance
Standard faucets would not withstand heavy use and harsh environments in a high-traffic area like the kitchen. But Lead-free kitchen faucets are built to last. They withstand heavy use and harsh environments, which ensures long-lasting performance.
Moreover, it has smooth operation and easy maintenance, making it the most convenient choice for your bathroom.
Aesthetic Appeal and Style
Many homeowners use brushed nickel faucets to add a touch of elegance to their kitchen or bathroom faucets. They also upgrade their homes with modern and attractive designs. Many lead-free faucets come in various modern and attractive designs, allowing homeowners to upgrade their homes’ style and appeal.
Increased Property Value and Convenience
Suppose you wish to attract potential buyers with modern amenities and kitchen faucet upgrades. By upgrading to lead-free kitchen faucets, you can attract potential buyers and increase their property’s value. They have water-saving features that will help them achieve a more sustainable future.
Typically, Lead-free products with low-flow control features conserve water, thus reducing environmental impact and saving money on water bills.
Compliance and Certification
Lead-free faucets have met safety and environmental regulations. With certified lead-free faucets, you’re meeting environmental and safety regulations, ensuring peace of mind. Remarkably, compliant faucet installation ensures that your lead-free taps are installed correctly and provide a safe drinking water supply.
Now, let’s take a look at ways to identify if your old solid brass faucets have Lead.
Ways To Find If Your Kitchen Faucet Contains Lead or Are Lead-Free
A kitchen faucet can either contain Lead directly or indirectly. If so, you may want to survey your service line, which is usually located at the lower level of your property. Once you find the service line, scrape off the above layer and notice the color.
When you notice a brownish or copper color, you have a copper line. Conversely, if the color is matte greyish, you have a Lead service color. Additionally, the metal underneath would be soft and shiny.
Lead and Copper lines aren’t the only ones used in homes. We also have plastics and galvanized steel, which you could use as a magnet to further distinguish steel from other metals. Remarkably, when brought closer to steel than copper and Lead, the magnet would stick.
If you discover you have lead plumbing fixtures, reach out to a plumbing agency as soon as possible to get a professional plumber who can replace your service line.
Other ways include:
- Old oil-rubbed bronze brass faucets: if you have outdated brass faucets dating back to 2014, you possess brass that incorporated Lead in their manufacturing.
- Testing your drinking water: Send your water samples to a certified laboratory to test traces of Lead minerals.
What To Do When You Find Out Your Faucet Has Lead
After discovering that your kitchen faucets, pipes and other fixtures aren’t lead-free, you must take the necessary precautions. Even if you find fewer traces of Lead, they still are harmful. Here are some things you can do
Flush Out the Water
Once you test your water and the results come out positive, you must flash out the water. The process removes water that has stayed stagnant on your water pipes for some time. When you do this, the water contacts the lead-wetted surface, evidently reducing them.
Let the water run for 30 or 45 seconds. This must be the best time to remove the water that is contaminated with Lead. Additionally, if the entire service line contains Lead, you can flush until cold water runs from the faucet.
Replace Your Plumbing Parts
If your plumbing fixtures contain Lead, you must replace them immediately. You can try to change any part that has traces of Lead. A faucet that contains Lead is easy to remove; however, an entire plumbing fixture is a whole other story.
It may take days and require huge financial investments, but it will exhaust you physically and emotionally. If you have the capacity to conduct this home renovation, then you must proceed immediately. This is because changing to lead-free faucets is a necessity for your well-being.
But if you need help getting the whole plumbing system, you must find an alternative solution.
Install a Water Filter System
Another thing you can do if you don’t want to change your entire plumbing system is install a water filter system. There are several water filter systems, and you can choose depending on your budget and needs. You can easily attach your faucet, and it works well by removing minerals from water.
Thus, get clean and fresh water. But if you want to avoid acquiring a water filter system, you can choose other water purifying methods equally. For instance, you can use the reverse osmosis system, which is also effective in purifying water.
In Summary
Lead-free faucets are the best choice for your health and environment and provide value for money. To reduce traces of Lead in your waterways, Infaucets Faucets has reworked the metal composition of most of its selected products. While some brands comply with EPA legislation, Infaucets Faucets provides solutions that maintain quality and strength.
With numerous benefits, lead-free faucets are the best choice for your home. They offer a safe, healthy, and sustainable solution for your drinking water needs.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The answer can be either way. Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which usually establishes quality requirements similar to those of the EPA. Bottled water and public health supply water are not required to be 100% free of contaminants. However, the products need to meet all federal and state drinking standards.
Lead is widely used in automobile batteries and sheaths on electrical cables, among other uses where durability against the element is not required.