Community Forums

FIRE UP · 04-13-2016, 12:00 PM

Gents,
I just thought of a great idea. It sure would be nice to be able to insert, some sort of colored air, or a fog of some type, into the air system on our diesel coaches. That way, you could see very easily where any air leak might be emanating from. And of course, this colored air or fog, would have no detrimental effects on the air system components themselves.

You know, they put dye in your blood to trace certain things and look for things in your body. A while ago, I walked out of our house on a nice sunny morning and, looked across the street at a neighbors house to see, SMOKE emanating from a plumbing vent on their roof top. YEOW, I thought, what the h..... is this??? I looked at another neighors and, low and behold, it was coming out of theirs too. Now I'm really freaked out!!!!!!!!

I walked around the corner of my home and, I had it coming right out of the middle of my drive way, from a vent cap. Well, that vent cap covers a sewer clean-out. I had no cover on my clean-out, just the loosely fitting cap.

Man, I was really scratching my head on this one. Then, here comes a city worker walking down the street with a clip board. He said: "We're pumping non-lethal smoke down into the sewer system to see if we have any leaks and, guess what, YOU HAVE A LEAK, RIGHT IN YOUR DRIVE WAY!!! Long story short, they gave me seven days to fix the cap or, it was FINE time, $$$$.

So, the moral of that story was, they used the non-lethal smoke, to detect leaks. Why can't there be something like that, injected into an air system on a coach, to look for leaks? It sure as heck would be seriously easier to locate them than creeping or sliding around with a soap and water solution spray bottle.
Scott

Gormleys · 04-13-2016, 12:47 PM

Good story and great idea. It could also be used for detecting water leaks. Someone mentioned that they had a shop do it to their MH when they discovered a water leak in one of their bays. Unluckily, no details were provided on what type of smoke was used.

natwwal · 04-13-2016, 02:23 PM

FIRE UP,

Try this:

Furnace Smoke Bomb

Brian

mrt_1111 · 04-13-2016, 02:31 PM

You mean something like

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvjk4F9sRo8

or ebay and search for "smoke tester"

Gary RVRoamer · 04-14-2016, 07:47 AM

It's worth remembering that a sewer system doesn't have numerous valves, a pressure regulator and an air dryer like your coach air system has. Not to mention brake pistons, air horns, and the like which may not enjoy a smoke coating. Seems like there ought to be some harmless sort of 'colored smoke', though.

RodK · 04-14-2016, 08:29 AM

We use a smoke machine in the automotive trade to check for leaks in the evaporative emissions system. I don't see why it wouldn't work in an air system

slickest1 · 04-14-2016, 08:01 PM

What is the matter with the current way of using soap bubbles?

FIRE UP · 04-14-2016, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

It's worth remembering that a sewer system doesn't have numerous valves, a pressure regulator and an air dryer like your coach air system has. Not to mention brake pistons, air horns, and the like which may not enjoy a smoke coating. Seems like there ought to be some harmless sort of 'colored smoke', though.

Gary,
That's EXACTLY why I stated in my first original post, that this "supposed" fog/colored air system would have no detrimental effects on any part of the air system. It would be just like putting clean air into it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slickest1

What is the matter with the current way of using soap bubbles?

Slickest,
Well Sir, there's nothing wrong with the soap bubble air leak detection system. It's just a pain, to either cruise around under the coach on a creeper or slide around on the ground if your coach is not high enough for a body on a creeper and, spit that stuff on every single possible air fitting, joint, valve, hose end, hose-in-the-middle, tank fittings, lines and all the potential leak areas. I've done it for decades on fire trucks and, our motor home for several times. It's just a pain but, I continue to do it.

But, if some HARMLESS colored air could be introduced to that air system that would have no ill-effects on any valves, lines, filters and all that, and, what would really be neat here is, if that could be done, then cruise around with some sort of black light or similar recognition source and, that would literally show you EXACTLY where even the slightest leak might be emanating from. Man, I gotta work on that.
Scott

bkervaski · 04-15-2016, 09:09 AM

Good idea, but if you can see it, light reflects off of it, so it's either particulate matter or water vapor, neither of which I would want in mass quantities inside my motorhome.