# Victaulic flange washers



## plumber666 (Sep 19, 2010)

Did a couple of repairs at a new school that is just barely past its warranty period. 1st fix was a 6" rollgroove on the heat pump loop that was so flared out on the end it looked like a trumpet. Suprised they ever got a clamp on it.
2nd was a 3" groove on a 741 split flange adapter. The 4' long peice had rolled off the groover and so the sealing surface area of the pipe was pooched.
I pulled out the 2 pieces and went to another lobsite and fabbed up new pieces. 
When I went to reinstall the 3" flange adapter, I noticed it was connected to a rubber faced lug-style butterfly valve. There was no flange washer, the two rubber surfaces were the seal.
I've seen inexperienced guys make this mistake, I'm sure I remember doing it myself. Dug into my old Vic install guide, and it says if using a 741 and rubber faced flange/valve, a flange washer has to be installed.
Showed the school board maintenance manager the book. Then I showed him the 20 or so valves in the one mechanical room that were similarly installed wrongly. There's gotta be a hundred or more of these flanges in this big school. When the flange washer is installed, it's clearly visible. Can't see how the supervising engineers missed such a large scale boo-boo during construction.

So, anybody seen a scenerio like that where there weren't big problems eventually? Rubber on rubber like that has gotta blow eventually, I'd think. Or will those seals last? Any catastrophe stories?


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

All I can say is wow!
I check not only the groove circumference but also the flare tolerance on every single piece I roll. Period.

As far as your 3" spool... Any piece that wanders even a c-hair on those rollers goes in the scrap bin, let alone if it walked right off the machine. I don't care if it was on the first rev or not.

Ran into a similar situation at a high rise we did a couple years ago. Every 3 way valve in the building was missing the steel flange adapter rings. Same thing... About 30 valves spread around about 15 mech rooms and ceiling spaces, times 3 ports on each valve... Expensive error.


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## goob (Dec 29, 2008)

if you ever do i copper vic job the washers are different size and material. this is not in the book, i found it in the price sheet . the ones for copper are a fiber like material


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

U666A said:


> All I can say is wow!
> I check not only the groove circumference but also the flare tolerance on every single piece I roll. Period.


I have the guys check the tolerances 2 or 3 times a day. If a piece is flared at all, the roller stands need looking at.

No offense:whistling2:, If one of my guys was measuring the flare or C diam on every piece. I would be on his a$$ to pick up the pace.

I have 2 very nice victaulic brand groovers. They DON'T change........:no:


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