"John" wrote in message
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"John" wrote in message
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My Hoover DF967 has started to leak over on the right hand side.

I have taken the top off as a previous leak had been due to the spray arm
feed in the roof of the machine leaking.

Just doing a load before I up-end it - when I tilted it to look under I
couldn't see any obvious staining so, any ideas? The salt container is on
that side - currently it is empty as I am using these 5 in 1 tablets.
Could this make leaks more likely?



Follow up - I have taken the side off and water is leaking from one of 3
"O" rings where the salt tank connects to a sort of manifold at the side.
I am hoping a clean and maybe a new "O" ring will fix it.

Been here before.
Yes, I expect a clean-up and re-assembly will work ok for a while at least.

Hopefully the clear plastic moulding hasn't cracked.

At my work, we use similar o-ring seals on similar couplings, only they are
generally made of titanium. These are good for 20,000 psi, and 400 deg F,
and pretty much never fail.

Yet I have seen these kind of o-ring seals fail on cheap plastic domestic
equipment at pitiful pressures / temps. Inspection shows no obvious
problem ( cracks, scratches on the o-ring seat, damage to the o-ring itself,
etc. ). These are typically static seals ( the parts are not moving ), not
dynamic seals. There's no reason for them to leak. But they do. I can
only put it down to poor manufacturing tollerances combined with distortion
( probably thermal ) of the plastic parts, pushing the dimensions beyond the
elastomer's limit. Dis-assembly, clean-up, lube, re-assembly may help in
the short term, but if the problem is what I suspect, it may be short-lived.

Try the clean-up and re-assembly.
When that fails, replace the o-ring.
When that fails, bodge with sealants.
When that fails, bodge in any other way that comes to mind.
When that fails, replace the parts or machine, depending on costs.

Question remains - has running without salt caused it to find a leak?

Unlikely, IMHO.

--
Ron