DIYbanter - View Single Post - "water test" for residential heat exchangers

Todd H.

Al Moran writes:

On 14 Sep 2006 11:27:18 -0500, (Todd H.) wrote:

On what basis do you say this Al?

On the basis that I do this stuff for a living. If there is a crack
in the hx and you pour water over it while observing the inside of
the chamber you will see the water. Now whether the crack will let
co in the airstream is another question. You can have a large crack
and not let any co into the supply air stream, it all depends on
whether the system has positive or negative air pressure in relation
to the hx and supply airstream, which depends on a lot of different
things. That still does not mean it is safe to run the damn
thing. It also depends on what state you are in. Some municipality's
require the heat and ac company to disable any heat system with a
cracked hx and inform the utility of same.

But what if the water is coming in at the clamshell joint that's a
manufacturing reality in many HX's and there is no visible crack,
other than the joint itself, which of course is there by design?

What I'm hinting at is this is a test that smells like it may have a
fairly significant false positive rate and no one seems to have any
data on it.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/