Hydro carbon contamination and ProPress \"O\" rings

gerry gill

ridgid or veiga..may have spelled veiga wrong..least then your getting your answer from the horses mouth.

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Rocky_2

ProPress O rings and hydrocarbon contamination

Is the ProPress O ring a captured seal? Meaning, does it really "see" the boiler fluid or is it there as a back up? Reason I am asking is I have a large system that has a mixture of Vic, Propress, and sweat and black iron. Recently the Vic couplings have been failing. Sent some back to Victaulic and they said their testing showed hydrocarbon contamination of boiler fluid and that is why the couplings are going south. Pulled some Grundfos pump gaskets that are only about 1 year old and they too are showing serious signs of deterioration. Looks like a beaver has been chewing on the inner circumference of the gasket. Seeing as how they just paid me $80,000 to re-pipe their entire mechanical room last year with 3 and 4 inch ProPress to get rid of old, leaking Victaulic fittings, I am a bit concerned. Any info will be appreciated. Am trying to avoid cutting out a 4" fitting to slice it open to see of O-ring is going south. Can't remember if the O-ring sees the fluid or if the crunch makes the seal, with the O-ring as a back-up. Inquiring minds want to know!
Thanks,
Rocky

Paul Pollets

Water chemistry?

Have you tested the boiler water? If not, I'd send a sample to Rhomar for analysis.

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Rocky_2

Rhomar

Spoke with Dwight there at Rhomar. They cannot test for hydrocarbon contamination. It actually is surpisingly hard to find anyone who can tell you what is in your glycol as the glycol itself presents problems for most test equipment. It is a distilling process to test for quantity and type of hydrocarbons. Had to send a sample to a test lab in Seattle as no one here in Alaska can do this test. Haven't heard back yet from the lab.
Rocky

Weezbo

Rocky..

there is an outfit on south cushman that does fluid Analysis for a dollar. Operators use it to determine transmission fluids PPM of metals etc or oil or engine oil or antifreeze from cat radiators etc...

Phone is OFF THE HOOK! fielded a group of calls since the last couple words i jotted down. anyway it off to the left just past the Tire Shop and the auto repair shop ,a ways. they would be the first choise as they do the tests for a number of chems, metals organics.... you take them a hermetically sealed sample and they deal with it and get you a printout in days.

Brad White_64

Glycol- Drew at Noble?

Perhaps Drew at Noble could field the glycol questions?

hr

Could be a bacteria, also

I had a weird bacteria in a home system once. It would eat away toilet flappers in a few months time. It also chewed up hydronic gaskets like you mentioned. Tough to determine and get rid of.



hot rod

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