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harry harry is offline
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Default Pinhole in 2" Steam pipe

On Dec 30, 5:09*pm, Mikepier wrote:
On Dec 30, 10:38*am, harry wrote:





On Dec 30, 12:51*pm, Mikepier wrote:


Last night while checking on one of the buildings I manage, I noticed
a pinhole leak coming from a 2" steel pipe that enters the side of the
boiler. The leak is not at the boiler, but at the top of the pipe
( it's a horizontal pipe). Fortunately it is above the water line. I
assume its probably because of corrosion, but in any event I shut down
the boiler and went to a nearby hardware store and purchased 2 part
epoxy, and applied it to the pinhole. Waited about an hour, fired up
the boiler and let it get to full steam at about 3PSI. I saw no leaks
after sitting there about an hour monitoring the situation. I'm
wondering how long it will hold. But one thing I noticed is the epoxy
dried as hard as steel.


How are these pinhole leaks usually repaired? I heard of JBweld, but
you need to wait a while until it sets, plus its rated to only 200-250
degrees. The stuff I used is rated to 300 degrees.


You can make a good medium term repair using a bit of joint/flat sheet
gasket material placed over the pinhole held on witha radiator hose
clip/jubilee clip.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ho....screw.agr.jpg


However it wants to be fixed properly, ie pipework replaced.
The fact that this has happened indicates you want to look at the
water treatment in the boiler.


I always thought it was not a good idea to add anything to the boiler.
I even heard flushing out the boiler and adding new water is bad cause
it adds more oxygen, which means more corrosion.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Added chemicals "get" the oxygen and control the ph of the water.

If there is anything to "flush out" you have a problem. It can only
be corrosion products.

Any intermitantly used steam plant has major problems. When shut down,
air gets into the system causing corrosion. Conditions are ideal for
corrosion.

Steam heating is unsuited to smallish systems. It has been abandoned
for this purpose in most places.
It has none of the avantages a large system has and all of the
disadvantages.
Only in America.