Solar Heating Leaking on Roof

Tubes should never have been strapped like that. Second picture is a Heliocol repair.

Welcome to TFP.

@Dirk may want to see this.

Leak is easily repaired with the kit @1poolman1 linked above. The heliocol manual refers to strapping like that to get around an obstruction smaller than 6"but also says it should not be don't prior to the first spacer bar and doing so a leak will not be covered by warranty.

1poolman1 said:

Tubes should never have been strapped like that. Second picture is a Heliocol repair.
https://shop.solardirect.com/pdf/po...lectors/heliocol-repair_plug_instructions.pdf

Click to expand...

Hi there. My mother-in-law has a leak from one of her roof mounted solar panels. She lives in Elk Grove. Do you do service work or can you receommend anyone who can do these repairs (she's had a couple of guys come out but they wanted thousands to replace the panels)?

I have bent tubes around a roof jack, but not anywhere near the manifold, and not by strapping the tubes down to the roof. So it is possible to torque the tubes a bit, but not like that.

That is a completely bogus installation (for the reason you have already discovered). A solar array is constantly expanding or contracting throughout the day and night, every day, every year. Like, a lot. The entire array, both left to right and top to bottom. Strapping a few of the little tubes to the roof as a means to secure the array is not at all a proper installation, and it's amazing it's lasted as long as it has.

Heliocol mounting design has changed some since mine were installed, but whichever model you have, Heliocol supplies very clear instructions on how to do it correctly. So figure out which "year" of panels you have, and then seek that model's installation manual (it'll be online) and then just follow the instructions (which might require purchasing the proper mounting brackets). Heliocol mounting brackets are little marvels of engineering, and they are specifically designed to allow the entire array to expand and contract in every direction, as well as allow some significant wind load without it tearing the things off the roof.

As others have pointed out, that plug repair is straight from Heliocol and is legit. And it'll very likely fix the current leak, after you fix the mounting problem and get rid of that strapping.

If you want to post more pics of your installation, we might be able to spot if your installer made any other errors. That way, you could correct everything all at once.