At 07:03 AM 8/18/03 -0700, you wrote:
>Thanks for your insight on this matter.
> Hopefully, it will prevent some other neophyte from hurting their boiler.
>royce in SB
Royce,
It doesn't necessarily have to be a neophyte. In larger scale circles it
has not been unheard of for clubs to have had "boiler inspectors", the
member responsible for hydro-testing member and visitor boilers, to be
either inexperienced, uninformed, overzealous, or prejudiced against copper
boilers, and over-test causing irreparable damage to someone's copper boiler.
If you read Jim Gregg's recent response you will see that he and I
have said exactly the same thing, that Murphy's Law dictates that any
damage that occurs will occur in the most inaccessible or bothersome place
and it will be a coin toss as to whether to scrap the whole lot and start
again or opt for major surgery. To a great extent we (Ga1 folks) are saved
from this because the majority of our boilers are self-staying and almost
all joints are accessible. This is intentional. The common exception is
cross tubes in a center flue, which presents you with a tradeoff, improved
steaming (dispite what Les Knoll says) vs. potential for an inaccessible
leak, but even then a clever boy with the proper tools can extract the flue
assembly and save the boiler.
Regards,
Harry
