Thoughts on trying to save a leaky secondary regulator?

[SanPancho]

have a norgren secondary regulator. havent used it in quite a while and now for some reason its giving me headaches.

i took the fittings off and rearranged them to have gas on one side, plug on the other, new gauge on top; all done with nice teflon tape wrapping, nice and tight. the gas in is via a 1/4npt to flare fitting, with a duotight flare to push fitting on it.

one odd thing- the gauge on the primary says nearly 20psi, but the secondary goesnt go over 14. im assuming this is from a sticky check valve on primary...

it wont stop leaking. sprayed with star san, cant find leak. checked everything, the check/ball valve out, the plug, the incoming, and the top gauge. cant find any leak. even sprayed the PRV to see if that was leaking. i tightened the hell out of everything. even the plastic regulator cover. went so far as to use a plastic washer between the brass flare fitting and the duotight fitting thinking that may be it.

still leaking. i know the primary setup doesnt leak. so its gotta be something at the secondary.

i'm pretty much out of troubleshooting ideas except for the big one- put the assembly in water and try and see bubbles. but im a bit hesitant to do that since i dont know the gauge would be happy if it got wet.

anybody else have any ideas on finding the leak?

 

[hawkwing]

Can you hear it leaking? If you turn the valve off does the pressure drop? If you sprayed it and it no bubbles maybe it’s not leaking? Could try dish soap and water it might show leaks better.

 

[SanPancho]

cant hear it leaking. once pressurized, i close the valve from the supply to close the system/assembly from the tank and it eventually goes to zero. it has to be leaking.

dish soap is worth a try. seems like it would show better vs starsan.

 

[hawkwing]

Do you have an output valve on the regulator? Might help isolate where it’s leaking.

 

[SanPancho]

yep. standard check valve/ball valve combo. its on both regulators, so i can seal the assembly up.

 

[SanPancho]

So I finally gave up trying to find the leak with spray bubbles. Decided that I might as well just dunk in water. Turns out I was right as there is a super slow leak, but not from my connections.
once I had it in water you could see a very slow leak, it came from a weep hole on the regulator bell housing. There was only one bubble every eight or nine minutes. I took it apart and cleaned it but the leak is still there.

anybody have other ideas? I’m a bit stumped here. I assumed the diaphragm was dirty or sat uneven, causing the leak. But now I worry it might be a small tear or hole. I know a rebuild kit is maybe whats needed, but they almost the cost of just getting a new secondary.

 

[hawkwing]

Probably best to replace it. Never even knew they had rebuild kits.

 

[SanPancho]

Unfortunately I think you’re right. I managed to find some instructions from norgren and while they mentioned lubing some gaskets there wasn’t anything that seemed it would sort the diaphragm.

i did manage to find what might be a cheap solution. More beer sells a replacement diaphragm for their komos regulators. looks just like every other diaphragm I’ve ever seen so I’ll order one and see if it works. Worst case I just return it to the shop. $9 sounds alot better than 30-40. Fingers crossed.

 

[day_trippr]

A lot of air could easily get trapped inside the bonnet. Did the leak stop when you turned off the gas?
You could stick a threaded 1/4" plug where the pressure gauge is then you could submerge the whole assembly with the cylinder attached...

Cheers!