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Pin hole leaks in a 20 year old feedwater tank, found after a blowdown
Last Thursday we had a small pin hole leak show up on the bottom of a feedwater tank we've been babying for years. It started as a tiny weep, so we figured we'd patch it, but once we opened it up for inspection, we found three more spots forming along the same weld seam. The tank was only rated for 150 PSI, but with thermal cycling and hard water scale, that seam just wore through. We ended up replacing the whole bottom head instead of patching, which took us two full shifts. Has anyone else dealt with tanks that look fine on the outside but are rotting from the inside? How do you decide when to patch versus replace before it becomes an emergency?
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the_nathan22d ago
Laughing at myself because I've got a whole collection of "temporary" patches on my own equipment that are practically load bearing at this point. But yeah, that's the classic trap with these tanks, they look solid right up until they don't. In my experience, once you find one pinhole along a weld seam, it's like they're all lined up waiting for their turn. The way I look at it, if the bottom head is showing that kind of wear, the rest of the tank is probably not far behind, so you made the right call biting the bullet on that replacement. I've learned the hard way that a blown feedwater tank at 2am costs way more than a planned swap during a normal shift.
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