Bill - Would it be of any benefit to install a pressure relief valve?
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The Procon rotary vane pump on my TIG Chiller took a dump. It was stored for the last 5 years, and well, it wasn't pumping any water.
I found out the hard way when the cable wrapped around my right arm for the water cooled TIG Torch gave me indication that something was wrong when my flesh started to burn. Hey, that's not supposed to happen
Only took a few seconds for the meltdown to occur, so the cables are junk, but the burn on my arm is healing.
Anyway,
I took the pump off the motor and ripped it apart. The vanes were not sliding very well, but they started to free up. The pump worked great before storage.
Not wanting to risk putting everything back together and it not working, I bought a new pump.
Grainger had the right pump, but the pressure setting was at 250 PSI, and the Max for the TIG Welder and Chiller is 60 PSI.
Not wanting to
blow everything up with the pressure being set at 250 PSI off the get go, I plumbed in a pressure gauge and backed off the built in
Relief Valve. Turned the pump on and set the pressure to 55 PSI. Works like brand new!
After all that,
I'm wondering why the vanes in this pump can operate at 250 PSI all day long, and the Gast vanes will blow up in a second. They are just carbon vanes about 1/8" thick and about an inch or so long.
If you dead head a Gast pump, what kind of pressure will it generate to cause it to blow up? It might be nice to know if an event took place, or maybe just install a
Pressure Relief Valve for a bit of peace of mind.
I've never seen the internals of one that's been toasted, but it's gotta be a bit messy.
