I have a leak in one of my solar panels for my pool. While I will
need to replace the panels in a few years, I'd like to keep them for
another year or two before replacing them. The problem is that water
travels through the panels under pressure, so I'm thinking that a dab
of caulking would get blown out pretty fast... The panels themselves
are pretty old (I would estimate around 12+ years), so I'm not sure
what will adhere to them. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear
them.

Thanks

John

On Apr 26, 8:54*am, John wrote:
I have a leak in one of my solar panels for my pool. *While I will
need to replace the panels in a few years, I'd like to keep them for
another year or two before replacing them. *The problem is that water
travels through the panels under pressure, so I'm thinking that a dab
of caulking would get blown out pretty fast... *The panels themselves
are pretty old (I would estimate around 12+ years), so I'm not sure
what will adhere to them. *If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear
them.

Thanks

John

I repaired my auto radiators plastic top 5 years ago with epoxy its
under 16lb, 190-200f or so pressure and heat. Fish tanks are under
pressure and held together with silicone adhesive. Auto parts stores
sell a varity of silicone sealants by maybe Dow. Expoxy may be best
but a fitting may just be loose after 12 years. Key is a clean surface
for a good bond for whatever you use.

On Apr 26, 12:31*pm, wrote:
On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:19:54 -0700 (PDT), ransley



wrote:
On Apr 26, 8:54*am, John wrote:
I have a leak in one of my solar panels for my pool. *While I will
need to replace the panels in a few years, I'd like to keep them for
another year or two before replacing them. *The problem is that water
travels through the panels under pressure, so I'm thinking that a dab
of caulking would get blown out pretty fast... *The panels themselves
are pretty old (I would estimate around 12+ years), so I'm not sure
what will adhere to them. *If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear
them.

Thanks

John

I repaired my auto radiators plastic top 5 years ago with epoxy its
under 16lb, 190-200f or so pressure and heat. Fish tanks are under
pressure and held together with silicone adhesive. Auto parts stores
sell a varity of *silicone sealants by maybe Dow. Expoxy may be best
but a fitting may just be loose after 12 years. Key is a clean surface
for a good bond for whatever you use.

Bear in mind that Epoxy won't hold up to UV exposure.

Which brings me to my next points of question -- how do you best prep
a 12 year old rubbery solar panel so glue will stick to it, and can
Shoe Goo or epoxy withstand Water and Chlorine? (I'm also considering
a bicycle tire repair kit...)

Right now the plan is to use a small drill to make the hole bigger,
insert the glue into the housing (I don't care if I clog that
particular part of the panel), cover it with a black rubber patch, and
glue that patch directly to the panel. That way, at least there's no
UV to worry about.
John

Ours are vertical parallel tubes about 1/4" in diameter, fed from
a manifold up to another. They are joined, but the tubing can be
easily identified. To repair most leaks in a tube, just cut the
tube where it enters the lower and upper manifold, then insert a
Hex head screw into the small tube stub, coated liberally with
silicone sealer. Some folk insert the screw first into a suitably
sized "O" ring, but if the cut is square and you use enough
silicone, your're OK. Give it a day to cure and the repair is
permanent.
Nonny

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:19:54 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On Apr 26, 8:54 am, John wrote:
I have a leak in one of my solar panels for my pool. While I
will
need to replace the panels in a few years, I'd like to keep
them for
another year or two before replacing them. The problem is
that water
travels through the panels under pressure, so I'm thinking
that a dab
of caulking would get blown out pretty fast... The panels
themselves
are pretty old (I would estimate around 12+ years), so I'm not
sure
what will adhere to them. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love
to hear
them.

Thanks

John

I repaired my auto radiators plastic top 5 years ago with epoxy
its
under 16lb, 190-200f or so pressure and heat. Fish tanks are
under
pressure and held together with silicone adhesive. Auto parts
stores
sell a varity of silicone sealants by maybe Dow. Expoxy may be
best
but a fitting may just be loose after 12 years. Key is a clean
surface
for a good bond for whatever you use.

Bear in mind that Epoxy won't hold up to UV exposure.



--
Nonny
Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member
of Congress.... But then I repeat myself.'

-Mark Twain
..

I don't have any clue of the manufacturer or specific material -- we
inherited them... Which makes it hard. It is a rubber-like material,
and it is flat (no tubes...). In any case I tried my patch
yesterday. I used a bicycle repair kit patch (the largest in the set)
with some glue I picked up at Canadian tire (the back said it was good
for salt water, fresh water aquariums, and was good for any
temperature... Don't remember the name though).

In any case, I washed the panels, and wiped them down as best I
could. I forced some glue down into the hole, coated the panel around
the hole, coated the bottom of the patch, applied the patch, put glue
over the edges of the patch... So hopefully that will hold it. I
also repaired a hole in a connector between two panels, but I don't
think that will hold, as there are tons of cracks in the connector.
I'll replace the connector itself once I get some time to pick a new
one up. I might have made a mistake though by installing it last
night, because while it was 18C (65F), when I was installing it, it
happened to snow last night, and worse, the snow actually stayed...
I'll let you know how it turns out... (it's supposed to be 17 and
Sunny on Thursday again, so I'll be running the panels then...)

John

On Apr 26, 1:16*pm, John wrote:
On Apr 26, 12:31*pm, wrote:





On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:19:54 -0700 (PDT), ransley

wrote:
On Apr 26, 8:54*am, John wrote:
I have a leak in one of my solar panels for my pool. *While I will
need to replace the panels in a few years, I'd like to keep them for
another year or two before replacing them. *The problem is that water
travels through the panels under pressure, so I'm thinking that a dab
of caulking would get blown out pretty fast... *The panels themselves
are pretty old (I would estimate around 12+ years), so I'm not sure
what will adhere to them. *If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear
them.

Thanks

John

I repaired my auto radiators plastic top 5 years ago with epoxy its
under 16lb, 190-200f or so pressure and heat. Fish tanks are under
pressure and held together with silicone adhesive. Auto parts stores
sell a varity of *silicone sealants by maybe Dow. Expoxy may be best
but a fitting may just be loose after 12 years. Key is a clean surface
for a good bond for whatever you use.

Bear in mind that Epoxy won't hold up to UV exposure.

Which brings me to my next points of question -- how do you best prep
a 12 year old rubbery solar panel so glue will stick to it, and can
Shoe Goo or epoxy withstand Water and Chlorine? *(I'm also considering
a bicycle tire repair kit...)

Right now the plan is to use a small drill to make the hole bigger,
insert the glue into the housing (I don't care if I clog that
particular part of the panel), cover it with a black rubber patch, and
glue that patch directly to the panel. *That way, at least there's no
UV to worry about.
John- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You didnt say its rubbery, epoxy needs a hard clean surface, tire
repair kit is just contact cement, I would go the Dow auto sealant
route and clean with laquer thinner.

Take a look at your pool. If it is spitting any black particles, it's time
to junk it. It sounds like yours has one foot in the grave and the other on
a banana peel. I had a system like that. I had to purchase special 2"
inside nipples to fix leaks. Then one spring, I fired it up, and it looked
like a cloud of black smoke coming out of the outlets. I shut it down
immediately, and called the solar guys who came and installed another
system. One with a better guarantee and a better design. I learned a lot
from the first fiasco, which cost me $3,000 for the first five years. The
new ones have more sections which hold together with hose clamps, and the
short sections can be fixed of changed. The other one was all glued
togethter, and good luck with that.

Steve

visit my blog at http://cabgbypasssurgery.com watch for the book

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:51:03 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I learned a lot
from the first fiasco, which cost me $3,000 for the first five years.

My only solar panels are about 7 years old. It all cost me $3,500.

One leak in this entire time. I paid for parts (cheap) and the company
fixed the leak.

(Mojave Desert)

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:51:03 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I learned a lot
from the first fiasco, which cost me $3,000 for the first five years.

My only solar panels are about 7 years old. It all cost me $3,500.

One leak in this entire time. I paid for parts (cheap) and the company
fixed the leak.

(Mojave Desert)

Ours is Solar Something ......... last one was Larry, Moe, and Curly. I
swear the people who installed it looked like gypsies. The guy who invented
some solar heating stuff there in Vegas, then was murdered by the crazy
neighbor. Well, the people who bought his collapsing company milked it for
every dollar, then fled.

Steve

John -

How is your patch holding up? We encountered a similar situation
Friday with our solar panels. When I turned on the solar to heat our
pool, a foutain of water spurted from our roof. After climbing on the
roof to examine the situation, we found 3 small slits in one of the
panels. Like your solar system, we inhertied the system when we
bought the house so we don't know the model or manufacturer either.
Our panels are also 'flat', not tubes.

I look forward to your feedback. If your tire repair kit and glue
worked, we are going to try. Thank you.

Valerie

replying to Valerie, Gino wrote:
Anyway updates from these posts were in 2016?

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...el-438826-.htm

replying to John, Lenora Sheila Faulkner wrote:
did you ever find anything that worked?

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...el-438826-.htm

On Fri, 19 May 2017 03:14:04 GMT, Lenora Sheila Faulkner
m wrote:

replying to John, Lenora Sheila Faulkner wrote:
did you ever find anything that worked?

I fixed mine with a regular brown tire plug on each end of the bad
spot. Just be aware this just fixes that one but there are going to be
more coming. Once they start blowing open the rest are not far behind.

On Thu, 18 May 2017 23:57:41 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 19 May 2017 03:14:04 GMT, Lenora Sheila Faulkner
om wrote:

replying to John, Lenora Sheila Faulkner wrote:
did you ever find anything that worked?

I fixed mine with a regular brown tire plug on each end of the bad
spot. Just be aware this just fixes that one but there are going to be
more coming. Once they start blowing open the rest are not far behind.

Today I shut down my solar panel on the roof. Pool filter pressure was
way up on the PSI. Turned off the solar and it went back to normal
start up PSI. The solar tubes are clogged after ~ 13 years. Check
valve opened up and the return lines are flowing again.

I'm cleaning the swamp. Got the circulation back.