Trying to Figure Out if I have a Leak...

manyman297

I've been dewinterizing and checking connections the past couple of days and with all the talk about the Alde Flow developing pinholes leaks, it's got me concerned. 

While I do have a tiny leak at one fitting, I'm not seeing water anywhere else. The glycol reservoir level hasn't risen up at all once the system has cooled (hopefully indicating there's not a breach between the water and heating jacket in the Flow). 

My basic question (and you'd think I'd remember this since we all do this) is after turning the pump off and leaving the system pressurized overnight, is it normal for the system to have to pressurize again once the pump is turned on the next day? It was left pressurized with the pump off for about 10 hours or so. I had the water heated so maybe the resulting contraction as it cooled reduced the overall pressure in the system?

Maple_Geek

We leave our pump ON overnight when we are in the camper to allow us to flush the toilet as needed. Other than toilet flushes, I don't recall the pump turning ON indicating that we likely have no leak under pressure. Can the pump itself lose its pressure when turned OFF for some time? I don't know the answer to this but it could explain what you are witnessing perhaps?

All that said, I did discover a small leak when dewinterizing this year and I believe it came from the loosening of the outdoor shower connectors at the back of the camper behind the ALDE. Once I tightned everything back up I didn't see anything leaking again.

manyman297

I'm starting to think it's due to the hot water in the system contracting once cooled. I'm going to pressurize the system today without hot water and leave it overnight to see what happens. For the pump to turn on and pressurize it would take a decent amount of leaking to trigger it...maybe 6 oz.?