Caught a hairline crack in my return fitting before it let go

Started by Bill Hartman · · 4 replies
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#1
Doing my usual walk around the deck last week, out of habit more than anything, and noticed a little wet spot on the boards right under one of the return fittings. Turned out the hose barb had a hairline crack in it, probably from the freeze thaw we get up here in Ohio, expanding and contracting all winter. Wasn't leaking bad yet, just enough to soak into the wood before I'd have noticed from the water level. Swapped the fitting out for about ten bucks and twenty minutes of my Saturday. Made me think how many times I've walked right past that same spot without actually looking at it close. Small thing but glad I caught it before it took out a section of decking or dropped my water level overnight without me knowing why.

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#2
No freeze thaw to worry about out here but that walk around habit is the real takeaway, honestly. I do the same thing every time I pull the solar cover off in the morning, just a quick look at the fittings and the deck before I reel it back over. Cheap insurance for twenty seconds of looking.

Funny how it's always the spot you walk past a hundred times that finally gets you. My spool is small enough I can see the whole waterline from one spot on the patio, and I still missed a slow drip at the skimmer for like a week last summer because I was looking at the water instead of the equipment itself. Ten bucks and a Saturday is a way better outcome than what that could've turned into under your decking.
#3
Bill, that hose barb fitting cracking is exactly why I don't trust the cheap threaded ones on anything that sees freeze thaw, the plastic gets brittle over the years and one hard freeze finds the weak spot. On my returns I switched to schedule 40 with proper female adapters solvent welded in years back, no barbs at all, and I still walk the pad and both returns every time I'm out there closing up or opening for the season. Twenty minutes and ten bucks beats jacking up decking to replumb underneath it, that's for sure.
#4
Had a similar near miss on one of my equipment pad unions two winters ago, not a return fitting but same idea, PVC gets brittle and finds the weak point during a freeze. Mine wasn't even leaking, just a hairline stress crack right at the threads that I only caught because I was down there checking my VS pump's suction side pressure and happened to run my hand along the pipe. No wet spot yet, no water loss on the gauge, nothing that would've shown up on a normal walk around.

That's the part that got me though, plumberdave's point about the barbs going brittle over years applies to any threaded PVC fitting near freeze cycles, not just returns. I've since started doing a hands on check of every union and threaded joint on the pad each fall before I winterize, not just a visual walk. Cracks like that don't always weep enough to see, sometimes you find them by feel before you ever find them by drip.
#5
Marcus makes a good point about feeling for cracks instead of just looking. In the trade we called that a tactile check, half the failures I found on gas line fittings and unions over the years were found with a bare hand not a flashlight, brittle PVC or brass gives off a slightly rough or sharp edge right at the crack before it ever weeps. One thing nobody mentioned yet, do that check when the equipment is cold, not right after it's been running. Warm plastic flexes a hair and can hide a stress crack that opens right back up once things cool down overnight. Down here in Myrtle Beach I don't get the freeze thaw you guys deal with but I still run my hand along every union on the pad each fall out of habit, costs nothing and takes two minutes.

FN