marine epoxy - safe for drinking water repair?

[Burnham Bob]

If I have to make a repair with marine epoxy will it be safe to drink water that contacts the repair - both hot and cold?

Can't see why not but forumites might know better.

 

[davidej]

We had this a few weeks ago.

The consensus semed to be that altho (for H&S reasons) the manufacturers warn against it, none of the experts really thought there was any problem.

 

[oldsaltoz]

I have made and repaired more than I can remember, never a problem.
It's common practice to line poly resin tanks with an epoxy be they for drinking or sewage.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[TQA]

Some epoxy is supposed to meet the NSF 61 test standard and as such be safe for 'food use' components.

Check the small print.

 

[lw395]

If I have to make a repair with marine epoxy will it be safe to drink water that contacts the repair - both hot and cold?

Can't see why not but forumites might know better.

Many epoxies are prone to generating by products.
Amine blush being one name for this kind of process.
I don't want any of that in my tea, thanks.

There are lots of different epoxies.
Find a food grade one and stick to the instructions (pun intended).

 

[AndrewB]

Well, I'm still alive. And (thanks to this board) I've even heard of a blue-water sailor who fixed a tooth with epoxy.

BTW We've also been painting the inside of our water-tanks with epoxy paint for many years, most recently using Altex AltraShield 2000 polyamide epoxy with Altex X-100 thinner, which is recommended for this purpose. If you do have doubts about your marine epoxy fix, you could always cover it with something like this.

 

[lw395]

Well, I'm still alive. ......

but your avatar suggests the epoxy might have had an effect!

Thanks for the info re proper stuff for the job...

 

[Pasarell]

Anything recommended by a manufacturer for water tanks has to have a potable water tank certificate. This is expensive to get and expensive to maintain.
All the major marine paint suppliers used to have potable water tank coatings in their yacht ranges but have discontinued due to cost and small market size. They still have them available in commercial pack sizes for ships tanks.
Usually they will be high solids pure epoxies and if you use one of those then you will almost certainly be OK.
In answer to one of the comments above high solids epoxies will probably suffer amine blush under certain application conditions. This is a once off event when first applied and is simply removed by washing with fresh water. It is colourless, odourless and tasteless so even if you immediately filled your tanks and managed to drink some you wouldn't know about it

 

[EdWingfield]

Call the manufacturer -they'll put you on to a techie Manager who will know.

If I have to make a repair with marine epoxy will it be safe to drink water that contacts the repair - both hot and cold?

Can't see why not but forumites might know better.

 

[nigelmercier]

You drink the water from your water tanks?

 

[Laurie]

There is a potable epoxy paint for the inside of tanks, made/supplied by a co. in Bodmin.....