Glycol Tank Inspection and Leak

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Corrosion of Alde Convectors.

ReenieG

BrianZ said:

Haven't yet drained our glycol, but getting closer.  I wanted to first get the convectors exposed for inspection for corrosion later, so tackled the removal of the rear storage bin.  Removing the 7 screws inside was easy, if you have a stubby screwdriver for the three inside the front.  The whole bin then dropped down a couple inches.  The only way I saw to lift it out of the tight space was by grabbing the two cross pieces of wood inside, but there was no room to do this while facing it.  I had to lay on my back like I was bench pressing weights, reach up above my head to grab the wooden bars inside & lift.  It was surprisingly easy this way, though you do need to rotate it forward & get out of the way to lift it all the way out.

Be careful, because there is a piece of fragile styrofoam insulation on the bottom with a thin covering of aluminum, which serves to deflect heat up & away from the bin.
Then, I got photos of all the hose connections..

Closer of hose connections..

And convector connection on rear driver side..

And rear passenger side, where I noticed corrosion or oxidation on the outside of the bleeder valve..
I guess that needs to be cleaned up & coated with something to prevent air contact?

And closer..

So that's all I have for now, until I get the system drained & can disconnect hoses for closer ininspection & test with ohmmeter if I can remember to do that.  I guess I could test these new looking surfaces of the pipe connectors now for comparison, as a negative control.  If it fails to give a high reading, then the anodizing by the manufacturer is inadequate to begin with.

@BrianZ I was recently sent to your link on this post from a Facebook post I created in The T@B Forum FB group. I was asking how to get to where I could inspect the reservoir tank and hoses. I appreciate your post and hard work. Thank you.

I have a question... my pic I took by inserting my phone down into the space between the cabinet and the tank appears to have only one hose out of the bottom. Is this possible or is this just the angle I was able to take a pic of? I suppose I could go back out to my RV storage and slip my hand down there to see if I feel another hose but I thought I'd ask here first. See my pic.

From looking at the pic, I see drips from the top of the tank so as I suspected, I'm thinking I may have simply spilled some glycol and am not sure I need to do all of the cabinet removal, etc at this point. I'm now wondering if simply turning the system on and see if it leaks would be in order before creating all of this extra effort. I'm not sure if you can see it, but on the bottom pic of the area behind the Alde unit, there were streaks of sooty, dust mixed in with glycol, but I wiped them up before I realized I should document this to ask for assistance. You can still see some of the black remnants in that pic below.

ScottG

@ReenieG, since the expansion tank is part of the glycol loop, there has to be two hoses attached to it (one flowing in and one flowing out). In your last photo, the missing hose would be the one on the left that appears to be coming down from the area where the expansion tank is located. I think you just took your photo at the exact perfect angle to completely hide the second hose.

As for your drips... The tank is the high point in the system so there is not much above it to leak. A crack in the tank, a disconnected overflow, or a poorly fitting cap could all allow a little glycol to leak out and dribble down the tank. However, spilling while filling is probably the most likely culprit.

ReenieG

@ScottG Leave it to me to get such a pic! Haha

I appreciate the comment and concur. I'll see if I can fit my hand down there and see if I can feel the second hose.

Rather than removing the back cabinet to inspect for leaks at this time, imo based on the drips, I think it would be prudent to run the Alde and see what transpires, fingers (and toes) crossed.

I'd prefer to go camping for Christmas instead of tearing my trailer apart.

As it is, I'm planning to add tank heaters & some insulation underneath the corrugated cover for mild winter weather camping.

ScottG

I think that's a good plan, @ReenieG. Assuming you have sufficient fluid in the expansion tank, if there is a leak it will resurface soon enough. In the meantime, camp on!  :-)

ReenieG

@ScottG my sentiment exactly! I will go visit the trailer at the RV storage, check if the fluid level is still where I filled it to a few days ago, replace the battery which I have removed, turn everything on and watch and see what happens. Wish me luck!

And... to be on the safe side, I will bring back up small electric heaters while camping, just in case. I have an ecoflow that I can plug a small one into which is 200 watts.

ReenieG

I'm still working on trouble shooting the problem. I went over to my RV storage today just for a minute to see what else I need to bring with and to figure out what my plan of action will be. I was able to contort myself and get under the passenger side bench area and take a few pics. It looks like there is or was leakage there. I'm still not sure what's happening and I think it still prudent to do a field test before tearing into the cabinets to remove them, considering I would be doing this alone, atm.

Here are a couple of pics. It doesn't look good.

BTW, my flooring was replaced in July so they would have repositioned the Alde while they worked but it doesn't appear from the pics that they ever removed the rear cabinets so this could be something that isn't all that new. Were those streaks of glycol there for some time? Is it an actual leak or was there transfer fluid on the tubing that ran down from a previous fill or from being bounced around? I do not know.

Here are pics from today, passenger side:

 

And this is a pic when the flooring was being replaced. The rear cabinets were not removed.