Repairable or Junk?

[roro]

Haven't had a Little Giant do this before.(2HTLP) Are they repairable?

roro

 

[Bob Foster]

Yes they are repairable and where the break appears is a easier place to repair than on one of the smaller coils.

What caused the break?

 

[Becker]

Looks like a freeze, or old old cooper and to high a pressure..

 

[roro]

My ***** had removed the pressure relief so guess it blew there as the weakest or highest heat point

roro

 

[Bob Foster]

Easy fix.

 

[ascrubabove]

That is the same spot that my 3HT busted when it froze. Take it to a radiator repair shop, or a welding shop that can silver solder

 

[roro]

Thanks guys - been to radiator shop and it should be a goer again

roro

 

[caleb211]

shouldn't be difficult

 

[Larry Cobb]

It is repairable.

But from the looks of the photo . . .

the large copper manifold has expanded at both ends.

This means it will be thinner on both ends after the repair.

I would NOT operate the heater over 600 PSI.

Larry

 

[Nate The Great]

My 20yr old 3ht did that... My friend who is certified in welding silver solder it... 3 times... The last time it blew, I was pretty much irritated with taking it apart and putting it back together... My friend did it for free each time (but you buy lunch). That was a round one... I have a square 3ht that is 18yrs old and only had a pin hole that he also fixed... I believe the round one kept blowing because the fire was directly on the repaired part... Hopefully that works for you...

 

[Royal Man]

Just a note:
Around here the radiator shops don't silver solder or have experience in it. But, the heating and air guys do it all the time.(Radiators just don't get that hot or have much pressure compared to a heater.)

Last time I took mine to the community college/trade school and the student and teacher took care of it as a class project.

It is a round one with the heat right on the spot and that was repaired 18 month ago.

 

[idreadnought]

silver soldering is so easy. I second Dave's suggestion about a heating and air guy. You may want to clean it up first with sandpaper and suggest using a donor piece of copper over the hole to strengthen it

 

[Royal Man]

The hard thing about silver solder is that you have to heat up up so hot that the other soldered joints can melt and need to be soldered.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

You can reinforce a repaired area by wrapping it with a piece of donor copper pipe cut lengthwise and tightened firmly with a couple of all stainless steel hose clamps.

Will hold for many years.

 

[Nate The Great]

The hard thing about silver solder is that you have to heat up up so hot that the other soldered joints can melt and need to be soldered.

My welding friend who works for Trane the a/c company, used MAP GAS to do mines... It's pretty fast for starting BBQ's.... I prefer using pure oxygen while starting the BBQ though... shiteatinggrin