"Run to the basement, close the riser." The partner shouted, blocking the pipe from which water was gushing with his hand, irrigating the client's toilet. It didn’t take long to persuade me, I didn’t run up the stairs so fast. With trembling hands, he found the right screw key, opened the lock of the basement door. In minutes I was already turning the valves on the cold water bench. Along the way, opening the drain valve on the riser.
Having recovered his breath, he went up to the apartment, where the application for the replacement of water meters was being carried out. The owner of the apartment was scared. The partner with a sense of pride and indignation says: "Not flooded" And at that very moment: "Lousy silumin" Showing a collapsed inlet ball valve in his hands.
So I got acquainted with this alloy, in the mid-2000s. Later, in this house, where this incident occurred, such faucets constantly came across, because they were installed during the overhaul of the house. And before performing any work on replacing water meters, the partner immediately was on duty in the basement and waited for a call in case of a break in the inlet tap.
Later, such valves met less and less. But this alloy began to conquer the other side of the plumbing direction, namely mixers.
Silumin mixers are 3-4 times cheaper than brass mixers, but they last 2-3 years or even less, respectively. At that time, this material was a curiosity and not many people understood the difference between a good and bad mixer, so the small price tag was decisive.
On the one hand, for us plumbers, the short service life of faucets was at hand, more replacements, more paid applications. On the other hand, it is sad to see all this.
It is worth noting that such new faucets are not very different in strength from their brass counterparts. But as soon as this alloy comes into contact with water, it begins to lose its original properties. This is especially evident when dismantling, unscrewing such products. Nuts, if they do not fall apart immediately, then stick well to the mating metal. By applying a load on the loosening fitting, the alloy begins to hiss like a snake. Apparently the structure of the silumin became like a sponge and gases come out of it...
Silumin spoiled the nerves of many people, both apartment owners and plumbers. Therefore, experienced plumbers are afraid of him, especially if it is a hot water valve on the last floor of an apartment building and the partner is on sick leave. And the application must be fulfilled ...)
p/s In general, Silumin is an alloy of silicon with aluminum (4-22% silicon, the rest is aluminum) and in fact it not used for the production of sanitary ware. And the fact that it does not last long and breaks quickly is faucets and valves made of Zinc alloy (zinc 95%, aluminum 4%) But since the concept Silumin-Bad, that is why the article is about silumin, but if anything I mean TsAM.
If you are interested in how to choose the right mixer, write to me in the comments, I will tell you how to do it.