# `Crazy On The Fly Plumbing Repair



## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Yesterday I was supposed to work on a 2" PRV, rebuilding it.


When I arrived, water was shut off to the building because the night before, 2" Watts RPBA started dumping around midnight. The outside water service was repaired earlier in the day.


It was a Watts 009, had the metal guide plate that holds Check 1 and Check 2 in position with the top plate used as a spring loaded opening for the relief. 

Well, upon removal of Check 1 we found the culprit; small pebble. The guy who owns the building got his finger trapped in the housing of the check due to the strength of the spring, but got the rock out. Check #2 was fine, no debri. 


What we noticed on Check Valve Assembly #1 was the O-ring was stretched, but not broke. It was only removed one time and that's all it took to distort it. Of course, my plumbing spidey senses went quick to work and called a supply house, trying to get full rebuild kits for the assembly, barking off the model number to the assembly. 


As you know, heat, hot water or petroleum products like plumber's grease will expand a O-ring. This O-ring was loose, so the owner of the building thought about throwing it in a freezer for 5 minutes. No result.

What happened next is something I've never seen done before, and it's working and working well, no leaking of the assembly either.


This fellow crafted an idea that I've never thought of doing before:


Cut the O-ring, took enough out of the loop to make it tight, then used a glue stick and filled the groove, then took the excess and wiped over the edges of the O-ring.


The O-ring before would knurl out of the groove, keeping Check #1 from going all the way in, preventing the bracket inside the assembly from sliding down and locking both into position.


Those O-rings are proprietary and the call back from the supply house stated the rebuild kits would take a day to arrive, short of replacing the entire assembly. 

This 36,500 square foot building was one hour and 400 people from being shut down yesterday, and that little O-ring trick was the cure for getting the water back on.


This didn't belong in plumbing tips... as this is only a worst case scenario situation. I personally would of never tried it, but the property owner was thinking in a good way.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

I would have removed the guts and installed the caps with RTV just to get the water on. Open the down stream test cock and have somone else gets parts while I keep an eye on it or vice versa.


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## rocksteady (Oct 8, 2008)

I have spoken to a few guys around here that swear by "custom made" o-rings. They use them mostly for filter housings but they buy the biggest diameter ones they can and just razor knife them to the correct size, then super glue them together. It always freaked me out to think about doing that but they say it works great.


If I had no alternative, I might consider going that route.






Paul


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## Greenguy (Jan 22, 2011)

We have a custom gasket place in town here, I've had them make me custom sizes in rubber and graphite. Bring your piece in they will measure and cut it in about 20 minutes. Save my âss many times over and is cheaper then getting them from the suppliers when I can get 2-10 extra to have on hand.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

I have an o-ring kit, that works well when I come across bad o-rings on RPZ valves. I have used graphite string to make a temperay repair on an 8" RP till the next morning when I was able to return with a rebuild kit.


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## grandpa (Jul 13, 2008)

When I was in the Navy, it was not uncommon to custom-make o-rings, and I am talking sea water systems @550 PSI operating pressure. These were big suckers....diamters in the 10" to 20" range, so there the tolerance on the length was not so critical that you couldn't measure it with standard tools. And the rubber stock was usually 1/4" or a little larger , diameter. So all in all, it was not an unusually tedious task. Yes, super glue was used. Of course it was mil spec, subsafe, etc. and cost about $30 for a single-use tube!


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## hroark2112 (Apr 16, 2011)

I can remember doing that too when I was on submarines. When you're 300' under water and there's no supply house around, you do what you have to do!!


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## gear junkie (Jun 20, 2008)

option 5...you're a hack if you do the orginal scenario.


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## user7551 (Oct 21, 2011)

guess it would be alright for a have to situation but i wouldn't want to leave it in there because the glue will break down and get into the water. plus if it doesn't hold tight u will eventually be getting supply pressure in to the zone and cause the rvop to start spewing out


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

grandpa said:


> When I was in the Navy, it was not uncommon to custom-make o-rings, and I am talking sea water systems @550 PSI operating pressure. These were big suckers....diamters in the 10" to 20" range, so there the tolerance on the length was not so critical that you couldn't measure it with standard tools. And the rubber stock was usually 1/4" or a little larger , diameter. So all in all, it was not an unusually tedious task. Yes, super glue was used. Of course it was mil spec, subsafe, etc. and cost about $30 for a single-use tube!


I've made o-rings as well... :thumbup:


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## Widdershins (Feb 5, 2011)

I carry around industrial grade gasket sealant designed for the aerospace industry.

Coat both sides, wait three minutes for it to tack up and then reassemble.

It works great on black iron companion flanges for medium pressure gas as well.


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## plumber666 (Sep 19, 2010)

The key is gitin er done. If you can keep a system bumping along till the right parts come in, you've succeeded. We've all done weird fix ups in the call of duty only to fix them properly ASAP, creative McGuivering. Keeps life interesting.

I once bent the hell out of a brass relief valve on a steam boiler. Male threads were completely pooched. It was a scheduled 2 hour shutdown and the nearest replacement part was days and days away. I had 1/2 an hour with some small ball piens, files, and whatever to undestort the threads and make it work or 150 people were going home for the rest of the week.

That fix up worked. They replaced them there every 2 years as part of the maintenance schedule, but that thing lasted.


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