DE Filter leaking?

[RASelkirk]

Hi All,

I just pulled, cleaned, and reinstalled my DE Filter and now I have an unidentifiable leak. The filter sits on three 2' x 2' x 2" thick concrete slabs inside a carpeted room and of course, the carpet is soaked with no sign of drying. Both connections are dry, the clamp for the two halves is dry, the top fitting, gauge, and bleeder are dry. The base of the filter is always puddling wet, so maybe the bottom of the housing is cracked? AFAIK, there is no hidden fitting there. Just asking cause I really hate the idea of dumping and removing this thing again, I'm getting too old!

Anyone ever seen a cracked housing? It did get down to 15° here, but the system was running 24/7 and I had a 500w halogen lamp blasting inside the room...

Russ

 

[HermanTX]

I would turn off the pump. Dry the bottom of the housing completely, then tape paper towels to the bottom. Turn back on the pump and have someone help to watch where the paper towels begin to get wet first. It is a crude but easy test to rule out other areas.
If you are confident it is not the body oring seal or the drain plug seal or the top air bleed connection or the inlet/outlet connections, then you could have a hairline crack. But it would have had to had frozen water in it - did that happen?

Maybe post a picture so we can see your setup.

 

[RASelkirk]

Not being under ERCOT control, we never lost power. The room itself was never lower than 50° and the pump ran 24/7. I need to revisit the 2 large o-rings on the in/out fittings, I had a donkey of a time as they'd both swelled about 1/4" oversize. I know they weren't pinched going in, but they may have lost some degree of seal. The fittings appear to be dry, but the water on my slabs is puddling in that quadrant. I've got a new salt cell to install, may as well go by Leslie's and grab the rings and see what happens.

Russ

 

[HermanTX]

Great that you did not lose power. So it must be a leaking seal. Have you verified the drain plug is not leaking?
I agree that if you disconnected the inlet/outlet unions then those would be likely candidates for a small leak. You have to have it aligned perfectly and the unions should easily screw on then tighten on the last revolution.

 

[RASelkirk]

Meh, it ended up being the huuuge case o-ring. I swapped out port 'rings and still had water on the slab, so I laid on my side (no easy feat for me) on wet carpet and watched closely. Saw a drip from one place on the body clamp. tightened the clamp and it still leaks so I ordered a new 'ring for the main body. I did notice when I had it apart the 'ring had oblonged over time and age. Guess it could no longer maintain it's seal...

Russ