Take off the gasket and upload a picture of it. If it is deformed and stretched out/swollen. Then replace it!
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Seems like a shame they didnt use a foil lining in that jacket to increase the R value, it does well at heating what is touching the walls but doesnt do that well at heating the entire inside of the chamber which I think that would help with
I definitely will! Gonna use a shotty siphon pump to try and get the heat transfer fluid out remotely cleanly and then Im gonna get it taken apart.
Take off the return line on the side first, break the vapor lock, and then it should drain no problem into a 5ga bucket or two.
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All red lines indicate a potential leak source (assuming no glycol found above where your finger is)
Top curved line is a heavy bend not no seal there. Since the bend is tight this is a possible leak point. You should be able to wipe clean and see it bleed out from any cracks if present.
Bottom straight line is a seal that prevents heat transfer fluid from entering the drain port area. If you remove the drain port completely you can still circulate fluid trough the jacket. To view possible cracks here you will need to remove the body and inspect right where that PTFE piece would rest.
Side seal is the fluid inlet, but if that gasket was leaking it would run down from there since it is the lowest point.
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The upper most red line is without a doubt where the leak is coming from. Is this something that is fixable? Its strange to me that it isnt a constant leak 24/7 but the viscosity must be just to high at room temp for it to leak. I wiped it clean and a long line of leaks formed immediately but across the entire area you drew a line over not just one spot.
Its got to be a stress crack there. The heating or cooling would also cause the crack to swell so would make sense that temp would be a factor in the leak.
The good is that is can be repaired. The bad is that you’ll need to remove and clean that body before you ship it off to be repaired. Cleaning and shipping is a nightmare.
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Hi @ThatHempGuy ! If you have any contact information you’re willing to provide us, we’d love to get you in contact with our technical team to see if we can provide any solutions for you. I’ve put our phone number and support email below in case you wanted to reach out to them directly.
(734) 855-4890 - support@usalab.com
Based on the images and descriptions you provided, our first thought is a potential hairline fracture in the glass. If this is the case, we would like to speak to you regarding next steps on repair/replacement options.
Best Regards,
USA Lab
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Ended up having another old reactor laying around so I switched over to that in the mean time. The new reactor is structurally sound but has a constant leak coming from the fluid drain port. Ill post a diagram of the reactor for reference. I am guessing that the port is no longer fully closing off because of a sealing problem and the pressure that the heating fluid circulation exherts on the port is causing fluid to bypass the seal. The leak stops when I turn off the circulation which reinforces my thinking. Anyone ever had this problem/ have any ideas? I am gonna look into a replacement port but Id love to figure out what is going on.
Yes, I had that propblem on our 20L AI Reactor, and a new drain port solved it. Like you mentioned, ours was deformed and the heat would cause it to leak under vacuum.
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Thank you! I will look into getting a replacement, I cant find one on the USA Labs website. Any chance you remember where you found yours?
I got mine from Across International, but I’m sure if you call/email USA Labs they can get you the right part even if it’s not listed.
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Thanks so much!
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