Small Crack on Intellichlor Union Nut! Is it a problem?

RoanPlayz

Member
Sep 13, 2020
14
Florida
Hi guys, this week I had to do an acid wash on my Intellichlor IC20 and when I first started unscrewing the union nuts by hand, it wouldn’t unscrew no
matter how hard I try with my hands and it was tighten down a lot so I had to use my channelocks pliers to unscrew it a little bit so it can come loose to unscrew it by hand. I was able to unscrew both union nuts and do my acid wash just fine but I did accidentally slipped my channellocks on the union nuts while I was trying to unscrew it a couple of times from the beginning. Some of the grooves where my channellocks were gripped and slipped on the nuts appear to be a little bit stripped but after looking closely I noticed this little hairline crack on one of the nuts. It’s not leaking right now and don’t see an issue while the water is flowing but was wondering if that’s a problem I need to be concerned about if that’s going to get worse in the future? Just hoping it might be just a minor chip scratch but I have heard online that people say that if there’s a crack that it needs to be replaced or else it will be leaking out of the nut which mine isn’t right now but since my union nuts are damaged a little bit from my channellocks right now if that will become a problem sooner or later. I’ve attached pictures of the crack and the damage on my union nuts. Thanks!
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Hi guys, this week I had to do an acid wash on my Intellichlor IC20 and when I first started unscrewing the union nuts by hand, it wouldn’t unscrew no
matter how hard I try with my hands and it was tighten down a lot so I had to use my channelocks pliers to unscrew it a little bit so it can come loose to unscrew it by hand. I was able to unscrew both union nuts and do my acid wash just fine but I did accidentally slipped my channellocks on the union nuts while I was trying to unscrew it a couple of times from the beginning. Some of the grooves where my channellocks were gripped and slipped on the nuts appear to be a little bit stripped but after looking closely I noticed this little hairline crack on one of the nuts. It’s not leaking right now and don’t see an issue while the water is flowing but was wondering if that’s a problem I need to be concerned about if that’s going to get worse in the future? Just hoping it might be just a minor chip scratch but I have heard online that people say that if there’s a crack that it needs to be replaced or else it will be leaking out of the nut which mine isn’t right now but since my union nuts are damaged a little bit from my channellocks right now if that will become a problem sooner or later. I’ve attached pictures of the crack and the damage on my union nuts. Thanks!
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To be safe you may want to cut that off and try the ones below. Or get a large stainless steel hose clamp and wrap it around the nut.
 
I can't actually tell which is the crack you're asking about and which are scratches. That piece is the nut of a union fitting, and is holding the union together, a union that needs to withstand the water pressure of a pool plumbing system. If it is cracked, it's giving you "advanced warning" of something that will eventually fail. It could easily fail into a catastrophic leak, which could, depending on your plumbing configuration, empty the contents of your pool, or at least part of it, into your yard, and/or burn up your pump (from the system running dry when the draining pool gets below the skimmer opening feeding the pump).

It should be replaced.

Also, that nut should be hand-tightened only. It's obviously been subjected to some honking by a large wrench, which probably subjected it to over-tightening, which is probably why it cracked.
 
Get a strap wrench to use on your future encounters with PVC unions.
 
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Acid cleaning should be an absolute last resort. If you maintain a slightly negative CSI (zero to -0.3), you will likely never need to clean the cell.

Ditto. I can confirm: I do and I don't (maintain -0.3 and never have to clean my cell)!
 
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