WD40 in nut on water pipe - should I be worried?

[enchantedolivetree]

I needed to replace the braided water pipe for the hot tap as I was putting everything back together; I placed the female end into the copper pipe and before tightening the nut below it, I thought I'd add some WD40 into the nut just to make it easier to tighten.

I then realised, given it's a water pipe I shouldn't have used WD40. So, before tightening the nut I cleaned away the WD40 with lots of wet tissue paper - rolling the tissue into sharper points so I could clean the nut out. Then I poured a fair amount of water over the nut and the female end to get rid of the WD40 and then used more tissue paper - finally, I put everything back together.

Is there a possibility of WD40 contaminating the water supply thus making it unsafe?

 

[enchantedolivetree]

Also, ran the system for 1 hour to flush it all out.

 

[gmartine]

Unsafe for washing? I think you've done enough to mitigate any chance of contamination.

 

[enchantedolivetree]

Unsafe for washing? I think you've done enough to mitigate any chance of contamination.

Thanks buddy, it's not for washing btw, it's for drinking.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

yes you will be fine you’ve flushed any of any residual out

 

[enchantedolivetree]

yes you will be fine you’ve flushed any of any residual out

Many thanks buddy, much appreciated.

 

[gmartine]

Thanks buddy, it's not for washing btw, it's for drinking.

What is it attached to a under the counter water boiler?

 

[enchantedolivetree]

What is it attached to a under the counter water boiler?

The copper pipe leads to the basement and connects to a combi boiler.

 

[gmartine]

...so the hot water is for washing then. 😉

 

[enchantedolivetree]

...so the hot water is for washing then. 😉

Not necessarily. 🙂 The pipe connects to a sink with a mixer so potentially it could be used to drink water from. I know most people drink from the cold tap but some people like to mix the two and it's easily done where someone can pour a glass of water from the tap and realise after drinking it, that's it not from the cold tap.

Hope that clarifies things, sorry if I'm misunderstanding.

I'm fairly confident it's not an issue as the female pipe was inserted into the copper pipe and hammered down by myself before I sprayed the small amount of the WD40 onto the nut. So, whatever remained of the WD40 after pouring copious amounts of water into the nut and then cleaning it with tissue should remain in the nut and if not it would have diluted after running the tap for an hour.

I just needed to hear it from someone else for the sake of being diligent. 🙂

 

[Ben-gee]

I hope you don’t worry this much about everything, it must be exhausting.

 

[gmartine]

🙂 Ahh my bad, I'd never considered somebody might accidentally drink hot water from the hot water tap or even on purpose. Fine from a combi not so much from a store, an old ingrained habit.

 

[enchantedolivetree]

I hope you don’t worry this much about everything, it must be exhausting.

Thankfully no and I agree it would be exhausting! With this being drinking water, I was just second-guessing myself.