Bulkhead Fittiong Leak in Progrid

[ChrisL]

I am scratching my head on this one. I had a small leak from the bulkhead fitting - not the variflo valve, but from the fitting the valve attaches to. I tried to tighten the bulkhead fitting some more, but the leak increased. I took the fitting out and the o-ring looks brand new. Reinstalled and it still leaked, even more. I backed it off and the leak went away, but when I turned my filter off, there was an air leak at the fitting, which sends my DE back into my pool. So if I tighten it, water streams out, if I loosen it, the leak stops, but air streams in when my filter shuts off.

I am thinking that maybe something wedged the outlet elbow, which the fitting screws into, just a little bit - a clump of dirty DE or something? I am not an expert, but the behaviour seems weird and I can't use my timer as when the filter shuts off, all my DE will flow back into the pool. Its going to be cold and rainy tomorrow and I am going away Thursday, for a couple of days, but any help on what may be the problem is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[waste]

Chris, if you have the time and inclination, I can tell you how to make a temp fix, and perhaps get to the bottom of this without having to open the filter.

The problem may be with the lower bulkhead o-ring

It's getting late tonight, so I'll leave you to your experiments for now - but I'll come back and 'fill in' this response

 

[ChrisL]

Thanks, I appreciate anything you can provide. You have come through for me before!

 

[waste]

Here's the quick fix:

Remove the multiportand back off both the top and bottom bulkhead fittings a couple threads.

Take 2 o-rings (~2" should be good - you can use the rings off of threaded 1 1/2" plugs, but a little larger and 'beefier' is better.) and stretch them over the nuts to sit between the bulkhead fitting and the filter.

Gently retighten the bulkhead nuts to create a new sealing point.

Reinstall multi and have no drips or air leaks



You and I both know that the sealing point is supposed to be internal, but this is a temp fix until you have the time to replace the internal o-rings

The same trick can be used for the multiport connections to the bulkhead

**here's the caveat - what you do to one (top or bottom) you MUST do to the other - if you don't, when you connect the multi it will force things into being level and cause the trouble you're currently ecperiencing** (this is why I'm thinking the bottom fitting is the problem, even though it's not leaking)

Good luck with this, let me know how it works out