Leaking victaulic fittings

will smith_4

I've seen my share of vic type fittings leak, some from improper fit, some from people using petroleum jelly to get them on (biggest no-no there is with a rubber seal!), and also from being eaten alive by water treatments which contain petroleum distillates of one sort or another. I have to hand it to Victaulic though-I've pulled gaskets out that were barely held together by a strand of rubber that were hardly leaking. Glycols aren't a problem as long as the gasket is spec'd for it; there are different gaskets for all kinds of applications-just make sure it's the right one.

Steven G Cron

Leaking victaulic fittings

I have several school buildings in north dakota that have victaulic fittings in the hotwater system. They tend to leak anytime the boiler shuts down any ideas on how to prevent this?

Brad White_9

I passed this on

to our local sales engineer who works directly for Victaulic.

My view from here is either contaminants under the gaskets and/or that they need to be re-torqued when cold.

How old is the system?

Unusual condition. Is there glycol in the system? That seems to leak in lots of systems where pure water holds.

Paul Fredricks_3

We had a similar situation

A local community center's system would do the same thing. Lots of leaks when the boiler went down. All the piping ran down the hallways, so when they leaked it took out the ceiling tiles.

Our inspection showed that the piping was rotting due to lack of proper, if any, water treatment. The only cure was to replace all the main piping. The price was large and they didn't want to spend the cash. I don't know if they ever did anything about it.

Tony Conner_2

Were...

... the joints leaking, and the make-up water caused the corrosion, and that process just finished things off?

When I hear of grooved joints leaking in long shots like corridors, I'm thinking expansion/contraction related issues.

subcooler

Leakers

It can even be simpler than that. As we all know steel pipe will rust. If your pipe even condensates a little under the gasket or o-rings it will distort the seal then wow we got a leaker. Long runs with expansion issues also makes it worse.

That is why I'm sitting back just waiting till everyone says hey did you ever have any propress stuff leak? You know it is coming. It's just a matter of when.

Ed_26

vict. leaks

Another possibility could be the gaskets are deteriorating, or old enough to have lost their elasticity, or wrong gasket for the application. should ckeck the spec. for heating/temp/fluid with victaulic.

Tony Conner_2

Steel Pipe...

... CAN rust, but it's not a given. There should be no measurable level of corrosion in a tight hot water heating or chilled water system.

Brad White_9

Curious are we talking

Victaulic as a trademark or "vic" as a generic coupling system (such as Gruv-Lok for example). There are other such companies that make grooved piping systems.

What I am getting at is, might it be that fittings or gaskets from one were substituted for another?

If it is in fact Victaulic, so be it. I would rather make sure if a fault is found it is attributed to the correct system.

Brad

Paul Fredricks_3

This was many years ago so I'm a little fuzzy. I don't recall expansion joints, but that doesn't mean they weren't there. We took apart a couple of joints and the pipe was rotten. Commercial buildings need chemical treatment. As to weather expansion helped the problem? Probably, but the rot was the immediate problem.

Christian Egli_2

No ball and spigot for header twist

The same mountain-moving force that cracks our boilers when such headers are installed that cannot accommodate elbowing movements will tease your Victaulic type joints into a leak.

I know Victaulic and Gruv-Lok advertise the ability of their joints to take in some movement. You can build expansion joints by linking several joints in series. It is a very neat feature but it comes with set in stone limits that always fall short in the world of the installers that believe since it is Gruv-Lok, you can do without any leveling and aligning. Oooh, the torque wrench pulls everything straight. Riiiight.

Pipes around a boiler get very hot and very cold, thus expand and move a lot. Depending on how inappropriately held the pipes are, all this swinging will beat down on your one poor joint. It starts seeping a tiny bit because the seal is stretched too far. At first the tiny seep is no worry. It dries up in the air, but... not before rusting everything around it because you have steel, water, and oxygen, one too many element for a happy union.

There are aggravating circumstances on top of all this.

Steel rusts. We know that. Steel rusts even faster if it is placed under stress. The cutting and/or the forming (this operation even more) of the little groove adds stress to a pipe which would have otherwise had a happy life. Steel, water, oxygen, stress: a brake away union.

If it weren't for the little initial unwholesome seepage, your joint wouldn't be the subject of this thread. Water, even untreated, does not bite deep into steel unless provoked by oxygen.

Of course, any combination of problems could be at hand, I am just adding more ideas. Those of us here who take an active pleasure at looking at steam headers know what makes for nice swings and other things that are vital to stress free steaming. But when designers think they are immune to these problems because they installed hot water... we have trouble.

Should've stuck with steam

I would look at the pipe layout and add whatever few elbows it takes to spread out expansion motion over the whole assembly, keeping in mind you can have only one solidly fixed anchor. I have seen a boiler being dragged across the floor like that, by an abusive header, forth and back. There is no way a single Gruv-lok can smooth out that kind of relationship.

I have not seen any finger-pointing difference between brands, except, perhaps that the more expensive items are installed by those doing a nice alignment job - just following the idea of what someone wanting to cut costs would do. The grooves have to be made to tight-ish tolerances - by that same contractor. The cheaper brands come with rougher looks and more burrs, but that is all fixable.

Brad White_9

Petroleum Jelly- There is only one good use for it...

Ask any parent, the best thing to use when having sex is Vaseline.

Smear it on the outside of your bedroom doorknob- keeps the kids out!

will smith_4

Brad-

Works once-then they get curious..."How come the door is always slippery when cartoons are on?"

Bruner

Business Devlopment

I have a heating system that leaks when the heating hot water is shut down. Assuming the correct gaskets were installed, how long should the gaskets last?

Bruner

Norhth Dakota Schools

How did you resolve the leaking water problem when the boiler was shut down?

redneck4Christ

Leaking Victaulic Fittings

Victaulic explains that their older gen Vic fittings leak due to the geometry of the clamp and the seal. They now have developed a fitting they claim is more resilient to temp changes like this. I recommend you contact your local Vic rep and see if they will work with you on pricing to replace these older, defective Vic fittings. Victaulic has been stepping up pretty well under certain circumstances to replace failed fittings. If your local rep is uncooperative, I advise escalating your appeal over his head.

pipeguy

There has been a lot of lawsuits against Victaulic couplings due to its poor quality and cause leakage. One of the big lawsuits is for many big condo buildings in Portland Oregon. Of course, many lawsuits got masked at Vic's request. It is just too risk to use their products for long term.

RJ_4

A good option for piping, especially to replace small sections in and around the mechanical room is Dresser couplings, adaptable for uneven pipe levels and expansion, come in large pipe sizes.

kipsteel

The wonderful thing about grooved systems is that the higher the pressure, the better the gasket is sealed against the pipe. However, shut it down, and NO pressure to force the gasket to seal. Add in slight flaws during assembly and you have a slight leak, which is made up with fresh water, which.....

Jamie Hall

All a big lawsuit means is that a lawyer sensed a profit. It doesn't relate to the actual product, at least most of the time.

Apologies to any lawyers reading this...