Bulkheads leaking

[adova]

Out of my four bulkheads, one started leaking a good amount of water about 5 days after it came online. I tightened it down (more than I think it should have needed) and the leak stopped, but I am still seeing some salt creep. There is one other bulkhead that has a small amount of slat creep as well.

Does this sound like some particles got trapped between the gasket and the wall and a good cleaning is needed or are gaskets that prone to DOA / failure rates?

 

[ca1ore]

I typically find that once a bulkhead starts to leak it needs to be removed, all surfaces cleaned and reinstalled. Often tightening makes them leak worse. That is why, IMO, you should never install a bulkhead in a place that it cannot easily removed for cleaning. FWIW, I'm sure the gaskets have a useful life, but it's not measured in days

 

[CStrickland]

You may find when you clean them that there's a little burr of plastic caught someplace, I been checking new ones and it's more common than I thought.

Also, you have them on the side that the nut isn't on right? And they aren't bearing weight from your pipes? I wouldn't keep one if I had to tighten it more than usual to keep it from leaking, wouldn't trust it.

 

[adova]

I am going to pull them apart and check it out tonight - they are fairly easy to mess with. I will let you know what I find...

 

[sleepydoc]

Where is it leaking, and how is it installed?

As noted above, the gasket should always be on the same side as the flange, regardless of whether the flange is inside or outside the tank.

There are only a few ways a bulkhead can leak - one is between the bulkhead and the tank, due to bad gasket, improper gasket position, or poor gasket seal from either a bad gasket, dirt/debris in the way, or chips in the glass limiting the surface area for the gasket to seal against.

Another potential point of failure is due to poor seal with the pipe threads or poor cement job.

Finally the bulkhead can crack either from the nut being tightened too much or from a threaded fitting being overtightened. NPT threaded fittings are tapered fittings. If you over tighten them, the will split the bulkhead. The general guide is to tighten 'hand tight' + ¼ turn. Also, if you use a threaded connection, use a pipe thread sealant, not teflon tape

 

[adova]

It was leaking from the outer edges of the bulkhead. Gasket is on the flange side. My guess is that there is dirt on the gasket or some other debris. My only other concern was that people may have seen more initial failure rates than I would have expected.

I am going to disassemble in a couple of hours and see what I can find. I am going out of town for a week, so I hope it holds together after I reassemble...

 

[adova]

I got them apart and there was a little grime. The retaining rings came off very easily, so perhaps they were not quite as tight as I had thought. Anyways, this time I made sure I followed the hand tight + 1/4 turn using an oil wrench. Time will tell if I start to see some creep.

I also was not sure if the area around the bulkhead hole had to be dry before installing the bulkhead. I really didn't have much choice this evening and could not dry it, but it would be interesting to know what your thoughts are...

 

[sleepydoc]

It was probably the grime and them not being tight enough. It shouldn't matter if the surface is wet or not; the seal is just rubber against glass.