Spent 4 hours chasing a leak on a 2-inch steam line only to find it was a bad gasket I put in myself

This was up in Gary last month. We had this drip on a flange joint that was driving me nuts. I kept thinking it was a crack in the pipe or something with the expansion loop. Pulled the insulation off twice, checked the welds with a mirror, the whole deal. Turns out I had set the gasket crooked when I buttoned it up the week before. Felt like a real dummy. Has anyone else spent way too long chasing something dumb like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

bailey.sam1mo ago

Yeah but four hours though? Thats a whole shift down the drain over one crooked gasket. I get that it happens but at some point you gotta step back and look at the simple stuff first. Pulling insulation twice without checking your own work is a rookie move for sure.

xenar141mo ago

Waste a whole day on something that dumb myself... happens more than I'd like to admit. But honestly, is it really that big of a deal? A crooked gasket isn't gonna cause a catastrophic failure or anything, just a little drip. I'd say you learned your lesson, cost you some time and maybe a few bucks for a new gasket, but that's about it. Sometimes we make these things bigger in our heads than they really are.