Vent: Had a 3/4-inch boiler tube let go on a pressure test in a Philly plant last Tuesday.

Margaret Torres · 2026-03-19T07:05:05.040273+00:00

It was a brand new replacement from a supplier we've used for years, and it split right at the seam during the hydro. Anyone else had a bad batch of tubing come through lately?

richard_west56mo ago

Our shop started using a handheld ultrasonic thickness gauge on every length before it goes in. Caught two thin spots in the last order from a usually good supplier.

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the_nathan6mo ago

That hydro test pressure should find a weak seam, not make a new one. A split during pressure test points to a material or weld flaw, not just a thin wall. Ultrasonic gauges are good for spotting general wear, but they can miss a bad longitudinal weld on a new tube. We had a similar failure on a boiler economizer, and the lab report showed brittle weld material. It is a different failure mode than just thin pipe.

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wyatt_sullivan406mo ago

Damn, that's rough. We had to send back a whole pallet of supposedly certified pipe last month for bad welds, so maybe quality's slipping everywhere.

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