Crooked flare connection
Austin G| Posted inGeneral Questionson
Everything held a vacuum overnight and didn’t show any leaks with blue bubbles, but this flare is the one that I never felt great about. It’s in a tight spot or I’d redo before charge for sure… but not having a lot of experience with these, is this acceptable at a glance or certainly a future problem waiting to happen?
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You need to bubble test with the line under pressure. Vacuum won’t bubble at any leaks. Can you pressurize the line with dry nitrogen to bubble check the fitting?
You can’t generally just eyeball check a flare fitting to know if it will leak under high pressure. If the fitting is REALLY bad you can visually check it, but you’re unlikely to catch any of the defects that would make very small leaks which is what it sounds like you’re looking for.
Bill
Yes, the system was pressurized with nitrogen when I used blue bubbles. Sorry I should have clarified that it passed both tests, vacuum and pressure/bubbles. So technically it’s a solid fitting, but this is my first one so I just don’t have the experience yet to know what’s tolerable
I’m assuming this is a refrigeration system of some sort since you said it “held vacuum”. Refrigeration systems run several hundred PSI on the high side, so you want to bubble test with high pressure on the line if you’re really concerned and want to be sure your fitting is sound.
That fitting might be fine. Flare fittings work by mashing the copper to create a seal, so a bit off from straight is usually ok. I do agree I like to see the line coming out straight though :-)
Bill
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