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floor heat leak

R

Ric

Cantree Member
I have a floor heat leak. I think I have it narrowed down to an area which was added on several years ago.

Would it work to close one end of a run at the manifold, then remove the other end of the run from the manifold, attach a short piece of tubing to it which had an an air valve and pressure gauge attached to it, then pressurize the run with air and monitor it for pressure loss? I actually think the leak is in the trunk line going to the manifold, I could also pressure test it using this method by leaving both ends of the run open and closing all of the others. My concern is in injecting air into the system but I guess it's no different than what you would have with a new stat up, I would just need to bleed out all the air...yes, no, maybe?
 
Maybe you could have someone do a thermal scan with an infared camera. If you have any friends on the fire department many of them have the theremal cameras.
 
sparkey said:
Maybe you could have someone do a thermal scan with an infared camera. If you have any friends on the fire department many of them have the theremal cameras.
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I've considered that but wondered if it would be effective in "mild" weather. My floor heat fluid runs at about 60 degrees. It would seem as though the ambient air (ground, floor) temp would need to be much below that in order to get a good reading. I'd like to get it fixed before the cold weather sets in.
 
We have the infared cameras at work. They are so sensitive that if I lay my hand flat on the wall and remove it then shoot it with an infared camara I am able so see my hand print on the wall for 30 seconds or more. It is amazing how sensitive they are if it is a good camera.

We use them to scan electrical panels to find loose connections or overloaded circuits.
 
sparkey said:
We have the infared cameras at work. They are so sensitive that if I lay my hand flat on the wall and remove it then shoot it with an infared camara I am able so see my hand print on the wall for 30 seconds or more. It is amazing how sensitive they are if it is a good camera.

We use them to scan electrical panels to find loose connections or overloaded circuits.
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Wow...that's cool. It would be neat to see that.

The imprint of your hand is obviously warmer than the wall. I'm thinking that my floor heat boiler running wide open and circulating 60 degree water would not show anything unless the the temp of the floor was well under 60 degrees...correct?
 
I was thinking you would see a pool of warm where the leak was and the tubing in the floor would be more defined where it wasn't leaking.
 
sparkey said:
I was thinking you would see a pool of warm where the leak was and the tubing in the floor would be more defined where it wasn't leaking.
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I agree. But I am thinking that if the leak is 60 degrees and the floor is 60 degrees not much would show up. I would need to wait until colder outdoor temps to get a good shot to get a more defined picture...correct?
 
In mild weather your floor heat should be able to get much warmer than normal. Crank the boiler up and let it run for a half hour. You should be able to see it on the thermal camera.
 
Some of our night time lows are going to be in the 40's Ric...if you wait until early morning, you should see what you're looking for with the camera.
 
It's kind of weird because its not like a slow steady leak. The last 2-3 years at the seasons start up I would have to add 12-15 gallons of fluid. It would then run fine for a month or so then suddenly lose 8-10 gallons. It would do this 2-3 times per winter. Going prolonged periods in between. Not sure what to think about it.
 
I used an infrared camera from the local VFD last year because I wanted to put new bollards in to protect my new auto cashiers. We went out on a hot July night and I fired up the floor heat. We could see where the lines were, I thought. One bollard went in fine, the second I cut right through the Pex. Now, I think the infrared would have been more effective if my floor heat tubing was installed correctly. When I went to repair the line it was at the very bottom of the concrete instead of the middle. Take your time with the infrared and if you can do it when the concrete is colder it would probably work better. Once you find the leak, to repair saw cut a small rectangle above the leak (enough so you have room to work. Use a breaker hammer (i used this http://www.harborfreight.com/11-amp-120-volt-breaker-hammer-68150.html) and break concrete around leak. I used push on fittings (hopefully they will hold up). then concrete over again. Not as bad a job as I thought it would be.
 
Ric said:
It's kind of weird because its not like a slow steady leak. The last 2-3 years at the seasons start up I would have to add 12-15 gallons of fluid. It would then run fine for a month or so then suddenly lose 8-10 gallons. It would do this 2-3 times per winter. Going prolonged periods in between. Not sure what to think about it.
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You could have a problem with your boiler and it sometimes pushing out the fluid. Would you see it on the floor if that happened?
 
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