IC40 Union Seam Leak

[JJ_Tex]

My IC40 is leaking at one of the unions, right at the "seam" where the two plastic halves of the nut come together. It looks like it was manufactured that way. Water is bubbling up at the seam and dripping onto the equipment pad. I can pinch the 2 sides of the nut together and the leak completely stops.

Is there an easy way to fix this, ideally without cutting the PVC? Would some sort of plastic weld/superglue be enough to stop it from leaking?

 

[JamesW]

Simple Fix for a Cracked Union Nut on a Pentair Salt Cell

I’ve found the information on TFP very helpful, but didn’t see the need to participate in the forum until now. When I put the blank in place of the Pentair IC40 salt cell for this winter, one of the Union nuts cracked. Everything that I found in the forum, on-line and talking to my local pool...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JJ_Tex]

Wow, thank you. Ordered and supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

 

[proavia]

If you can push both halves of the nut together, it isn't a "seam" it's a "crack".
Hope JamesW's linked fix works.

 

[pjt]

Another option would be Plast-aid. I used it to repair my cracked SWG. It bonds extremely well with PVC, and it's unbelievably strong. Waterproof Plastic Repair Kits Fixes cracked ABS PVC Acrylic Wood More

 

[JamesW]

Wow, thank you. Ordered and supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

Did it work?

 

[JJ_Tex]

Did it work?

It seems a tad bit smaller. Amazon delivered it after dark so I didn’t give it my best effort. Heading to the lake but I checked before we left and the cracked union is still just dripping a very minimal amount.

I’ll give it a better shot tomorrow in daylight.

 

[JJ_Tex]

Ok, so here is an update for anyone else in this situation.
The split union above is a good idea, except it has an extra lip that prevents it from going on the pipe. I tried grinding down the lip using my dremmel, but that did not work well and I threw in the towel and looked for a plan B. Pictures of the lip compared to the normal IC 40 union below, plus my poor attempt to grind it down with a dremmel:



So, for my plan B I found this video in which he slices the new union to allow it to go onto the old pipe, then is secured by a hose clamp. So far it is working great. If the clamp fails I will post back. Hope this helps anyone else with the same issue.

 

[JJ_Tex]

Also if anyone is looking for a good business idea, I recommend a split union that actually fits the IC40. From my internet searching there were many people experiencing the same issue and not many had a good answer other than redo a good chunk of pipe at their equipment pad.

 

[Newdude]

If it fails you have plenty of room to add a coupler.




You can either add a coupler, a couple inches of pipe and the new 2 piece union or just cut the pipe to slide the threaded collar off/on and cut a gap in the original pipe as wide as the interior of the coupler.

Its best practice to replace it all, but the stationary piece thingie is all but bulletproof and can be reused.