Spent 3 hours chasing an air leak that was just a gasket I installed upside down

Working on a 500-gallon tank last Tuesday, I kept hearing this hiss every time we pressurized it. Me and my partner checked every flange, every weld, every fitting. We were about to pull the whole head off when my apprentice pointed at the manhole gasket. I had seated it with the raised lip facing outward instead of inward. The manual even had a diagram, but I was in a hurry and skipped it. Three hours of my life gone because I didn't look at a picture for 10 seconds. Has anyone else wasted a whole morning on a mistake that simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

river_adams255d ago

Take a breath man it's just a gasket. Sure it's annoying but three hours on a tank isn't that bad. I've spent whole days chasing electrical gremlins that turned out to be a loose wire I could have fixed in five minutes. You learned something and your apprentice caught it so really you just paid for a lesson in reading the manual. Plus now you'll never forget which way that lip goes so it's not really wasted time.

reed.ray4d ago

Did my apprentice teach me that or did I just learn it for the third time?