I have been pressure testing my hydrocarbon CLS, filling it to 100psi with nitrogen and then watching the gauge throughout the day. I found small leaks happening at the 1/2” JIC connection coming from the thread that connects the two to make the seal.
I’ve never ran my CLS since I’ve bought it at the end of 2021. (Been taking my time researching and also handling a hemp farm) The hoses were rarely ever used so I don’t think it could be from misuse. The flare and the cone connections look fine, no cracks/nicks and I do not over tighten them. Hand tight and then a little past with wrench. (I don’t have a torque crescent wrench but will be getting one) I even added a bit of thread tape around the threaded connection to see if that would help at all and the leak moved to the swivel point on the female JIC hose.
Getting a new hose seems like the best option or making new crimped ends on the hose. It seems odd to me that all 7 of my SS JIC hoses are leaking from the same point. They were ordered awhile ago but they were hardly ever used or handled with.
I’ve also seen there is a product called flaretight made for leaky JIC connections that slip on the inside of the male or female end and then make the mechanical seal. I don’t know if this is a viable option for what we are doing but it looks promising. They make them with loctite coating and then just regular stainless steel.
Anyone have any ideas on what would be causing this issue with all 7 hoses? This leak has been driving me crazy.
I’d swap the hose fitting combo so you can rule out if it’s the male jic fitting or the hose first, then replace what you know is messed up… Sometimes shit happens. No need to replace them all.
I’ve swapped the male fittings on them and the hoses to see if there was any difference. Still leaking. I’ve got 10 more new male fittings coming in the mail that I’ll throw on and then see if a new clean flare makes a difference. Needed a few extra ones anyways and they’re good to have on hand.
The picture is my line running from collection to sieve. Both connections are leaking sadly. That is a good idea though, I might have one connection end from the material to my collection that seems to have no bubbles. I’ll switch that one around tomorrow and see for sure.
it doesnt look like you have the hose pulled back… if you dont take the slack out of the jic head to the hose… sometimes the sealing part of the hose doesnt sit flush on the jic fitting… it looks like your top picture the hose is sitting closer on the top than the bottom… and your second picture it looks like the bottom is closer…this isnt usually a problem with jic connectors but we experience it more on larger jic sizes
what size hose and jic fittings are these… the larger always takes a bit more to tighten…
Try using 2 wrenches to tighten … one to hold the male jic / npt fitting in place then tighten the female jic/ hose . 1/2’’ jic are sometimes harder to seal imo
I’m using 1/2” braided tube. I definitely have to agree with your observation on the hose. I tried pulling back the slack on the hose while threading down the connection, even a little tighter this time with two wrenches. Still leaking. It’s tiny but no leaks are acceptable.
The hose pictured, I took off to actually look at the swivel to see how much play was in between the swivel and the head and one 100% has more slack than the other.
I also tried what FicklePickle said about switching the connections to see if one was sealed or not to determine a bad male JIC flare was the culprit but we still had a leak after switching the hose around and a few other male JICs.
Man I love chasing these leaks. Might just have to buy some new ends and get them crimped on at the hydraulic shop in town.
The old flares (left) that came with my system are raised a bit more at the 37 degree than the new ones I got today. (right) The new flare also seats all the way into the thread.
