zygote2k July 8, 2011 Share July 8, 2011 Part of my maintenance job is fixing the commercial systems that 28 of the area Petsmarts use. Yesterday, I spent almost 8 hours chasing leaks on 2 seperate UV systems. The first one uses quartz sleeves and rubber bushings to keep water out. When a quartz sleeve breaks, they provide a stoppered end cap to seal the tube until a new sleeve arrives. Sometimes these caps work and sometimes they don't. When they don't, you have to use PVC endcaps. The PVC endcaps dont have a rubber bushing, so they drip no matter how much teflon tape they use. After 3+ hours on this system, I was able to get the leaks stopped and the parts ordered for next week replacement. The second system was an emergency repair called in on Saturday, but parts arrived yesterday. Water spraying uncontrollably from the UV tubes. This system uses compression fittings around an unshielded bulb. Part of the compression fitting is glued into the body of the sterilizer. You're supposed to use a heat gun to remove them, and then glue the new part in place. What happens when the resulting hole is bigger than the new insert? A new solution must be found. You can't shut the system down because this is the circulation side for 8000 gallons. I had to do a hard pipe bypass of the whole UV array with 2" PVC until a solution is found to plug the insert fitting holes. 4+ hours on this one and didn't get to leave until 9pm. Does anyone have a good glue compound that I can use to fill a gap between a pvc pipe and a fitting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak July 8, 2011 Share July 8, 2011 Thats Thats weird as all get out, we could isolate the UV array, carbon filter, and pressurized filter all speperately on our system and we had one of the older systems. Also as for the leaking pipe caps on our sterilizer system (we had 8 bulb arrays) when I would cap one off I used teflon paste, and just a ton of it, I only ever capped off 4 of them but it worked fine for each. Don't know what to tell you about the compression fitting except call pentair or who ever makes the array from the particular one you're working on and get a whole new housing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar July 8, 2011 Share July 8, 2011 (edited) Can you make a gasket to go between the opening and the PVC end cap? I recently picked up a small sheet of rubbery gasket material at harbor freight to make my own gaskets if I ever need it. Edited July 8, 2011 by Jon Lazar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k July 8, 2011 Author Share July 8, 2011 Jason- I have yet to see one of these systems where you can isolate a component and keep the rest of the system running. I haven't seen all of them, but many of them appear to not have bypasses installed. Jon- I was thinking about a washer or gasket made of pvc to glue into place first, then glue the insert into it. Gotta love WAMAS- where else could I get this kind of info... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 July 10, 2011 Share July 10, 2011 Rob, how about increasing the size and using a uniseal to retrofit it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k July 11, 2011 Author Share July 11, 2011 It's gotta be watertight enough that it doesn't leak. No way to use a uniseal with the insert fitting either. I'm probably going to get a plastic washer of some sort to seal around the insert fitting and then use Gorilla Glue to bond it into place. I'll take pix when I'm out there again to show you what I'm up against. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k September 25, 2011 Author Share September 25, 2011 The recommended fix is to use a heat gun to heat the fitting and melt the glue bond, then pull the fitting out. There's a custom turned pvc fitting that goes right back in place with thick pvc glue. I've now repaired about 12 of these fittings since. The system that Jason is referring to still requires you to drop one of the 3 pumps in order to bypass the uv. The longer that I work on these systems allows me to start creating an ultimate commercial fish filtration unit for saltwater applications. I love my job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randumbwit September 25, 2011 Share September 25, 2011 I've never tried bonding the 2 different materials together, but I'm pretty sure methylene chloride works with PVC. Would it be worth trying to make a custom size/shape patch out of a piece of acrylic with a heat gun and using m.c. to affix it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k September 25, 2011 Author Share September 25, 2011 I've never tried bonding the 2 different materials together, but I'm pretty sure methylene chloride works with PVC. Would it be worth trying to make a custom size/shape patch out of a piece of acrylic with a heat gun and using m.c. to affix it? as I just stated, there's a custom pvc part already made for it. MC does work with PVC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal September 25, 2011 Share September 25, 2011 Assuming you remove the UV unit to place the end cap on, could you create a short section of PVC pipe with an end cap firmly glued on, then use one of the rubber sleeves with hose clamps to attach it to the existing pipes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k September 25, 2011 Author Share September 25, 2011 hose clamps aren't strong enough for high pressure situations. the pump is 1 hp and uses 2" pipe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overklok September 25, 2011 Share September 25, 2011 You could use an automotive hose clamp. There are ones made for high boost applications that would handle the pressure easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanglandJoshua September 25, 2011 Share September 25, 2011 Hmmm, sounds like fun...still wish I had a job like that though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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