Spent 2 hours chasing a steam leak that was just my own gauge

Was trouble shooting a 6 inch line at a plant outside Tulsa and kept hearing this hiss every time we hit 120 psi. Turned out the needle on my test gauge was stuck and I was tightening the wrong joint the whole time. Anyone else ever get fooled by their own equipment on a simple pressure check?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_harris681d ago

Back in '09 my buddy swore a valve was weeping but turns out it was just his hearing aid feeding back.

michaelcoleman11h ago

The hearing aid thing reminded me of a time I had a similar issue with a thermal camera. I kept seeing a hot spot on a line and thought we had a bad steam trap. Turns out the camera lens was dirty and it was picking up my own reflection off a polished pipe. Gotta be careful trusting any single piece of gear without double checking it. That stuck gauge thing is a classic, and it happens way more than people admit. Usually the tool is fine, it's just something dumb like a dirty lens or a low battery messing with the reading.