Looking for ideas to find a leak

General Discussion
1

I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas or best practices for finding the source of a leak on a sealed dry enclosure. I have a 4"x16" bottle with about a dozen penetrators, and a small leak, somewhere. I’ve already disassembled and re greased everything and that didn’t fix it, so I’m wondering if there is a better way to identify the source internally.

2

Hi @brad_smith
Do any of your penetrations use epoxy potting?

I assume you know you have a leak due to a vacuum test? You could reverse the switch on your vacuum pump, and submerge the vehicle with it pressurized to 2-5 psi. A small stream of air bubbles should appear from your leak- or you can use a spray of super soapy water? We made this video to illustrate.

3

Hi Tony, this was super helpful, thank you. for some reason I didn’t think such a low pressure would be able to squeeze out of that small of an opining, but it did, I found my leak. I had a small cut in the sleeve of a coax cable I was using. I was able to get that sealed up and everything seems to be working now. Thanks again.

4

I’ve found submerging in a tank is the most effective, with the small risk of things suddenly getting a lot worse.

I normally keep some leak detector fluid handy as well. Messier but does not require quite as much risk: