This is a DIY for how to fix hundreds of holes in the very expensive Fafco Revolution solar heating panels.
Many lessons learned are in this DIY ... which I believe are nowhere else on the web.
I write this so that YOU have the information that I never had, when I started this quest four years ago to fix my Fafco Revolution solar heating panels.
Good luck and - please improve with suggestions - as I still haven't found a good supplier for the plugs used in this DIY.
History:
- My solar heating panel installation was designed & installed by Poco Solar at 3345 Keller Street Santa Clara (408-970-0680) about 10 years ago.
- They are the only Fafco authorized dealer anywhere near me, according to Fafco (http://www.fafco.com/find_dealer/default.aspx)
- They are warranted for 10 years, to the original owner only (http:// www.fafco.com/shw/faq.aspx).
- I bought the house about 4 years ago, and this problem has been going on since then (and clearly before then).
- The 13 four-feet wide twelve-foot long panels are 15 feet below the pool (http://www.fafco.com/files/06836C_Pool Owners% 20Manual_10-28-09.pdf)
- They're 'drained' each winter by opening the only drain Poco solar installed and shutting off the three "Jandy" valves provided.
- This is in accordance with the Fafco factory winterizing instructions at http://www.fafco.com/sph/faq.aspx
- Yet, each time I start up the solar heating system, fifty (or so) leaks occur; and another dozen or so occur during the summer.
- Each and every leak (mostly pinholes) is at the weak-spot 'whorl' pressed into the Fafco Revolution solar heating panels.
- Prices for a new Fafco Revolution solar heating panel were quoted by Poco solar as $528 + ~10% tax.
- The Fafco Sunsaver solar heating panels are the same thing, but without the weak whorl, at $370 + ~10% tax.
- Obviously, the first tip to you, the reader, is save yourself ~$175 per panel by NOT buying the one with the weak whorl.
- The salesman will swear the 'whorl' gives you better heating because it 'spins' the water in the tube.
- Personally, I think the whorl is pressed into the tube and it is badly designed such that it becomes THE weakest point in the entire system!
- The second tip is to buy a $45 Fafco repair kit with 20 repair plugs to disable each tube as it springs a leak at the whorl
- You really need the EXACT shape of the chisel gouge that comes with the kit; and the allen-head pusher is just the right size (an allen wrench hurts your hands more)
- And, before some smart aleck suggest gluing the pinholes, make sure you've tried it first.
- You can try all the glues you want (I've tried at least a half dozen); they all fail ... at least they all failed me. YMMV.
- What I do is what Fafco recommends which is to just disable any tube that leaks (about 50 tubes per year!)
- It takes a minimum of 2 and sometimes 4 plugs to disable a single tube (so you need at least 100 plugs for starters)
- The Fafco plugs are of soft rubber of a width of 1/4" tapered to a smidge over 1/8"; length barely over 7/8" with a hole in the large end
- The official repair option is to buy 100 repair plugs at $0.54 each (+~10% tax) from the dealer.
- These are the perfect length to go in smoothly - and they have a hole in them to keep the plug from bunching up like an inchworm
- However, at 50 pinholes per year and over 54 cents per plug and with two to four plugs per pinhole, the Fafco plugs get expensive!
- I found similar plugs at McMaster Carr & WidgetCo for about $.09 each, plus 10% tax + about $5 shipping
- The WidgetCo part number is 7-R000000-EPDM-RS and the cost is $39.00 for 100 tapered rubber stoppers (1/4x1/8x3/4 EPDM)
- The McMaster-Carr part number is "6448K88" and the cost is $8.46 for 100 tapered rubber stoppers (1/4x1/8x3/4 EPDM)
- McMaster-Carr actually gets their plugs from RubberDynamics.com, PN TPE0250-0750, which sells for $5.00 for 100 stoppers (1/4x1/8x3/4 EPDM)
- The only problem with RubberDynamics is you have to buy 10 packs of 100 wherease McMaster-Carr will sell one pack of 100.
- These EPDM plugs are just as wide (1/4") and tapered just as small (1/8") but they're shorter at 3/4" & they don't have the hole in the large end
- I have not yet found on the net a tapered rubber stopper that is the same dimensions yet longer at 7/8" (if you know of any, let me know!)
- You 'could' easily melt a hole in the end by heating a small allen wrench and shoving it into the rubber - but I found it wasn't really necessary.
- If you use the Fafco repair kit, you do not need any other special tools - although dish detergent & an 1/8" round 'tool' are useful when using the suggested rubber stoppers (which are shorter and don't have the extra hole).
Here is a picture of the $45 Fafco solar heating panel repair kit (the shampoo lubricant and the red case are my additions):
[attachment=2]fafco_repair_kit.jpg[/attachment]
100 plugs from the dealer is $54.00 + ~10% tax; the closest/cheapest I found is TPE0250-0750 from Rubber Dynamics at $5.00 for 100 plugs:
Here is what the panels look like when they're dry (notice the water stains, each one of which is a recent leak):
[attachment=1]fafco_solar_panels_leak.JPG[/attachment]
There are perhaps 50 or more pinholes like these, all of which are at the weak-point 'whorl' specific to the Fafco Revolution panels. Notice the many varied attempts at glue, epoxy, and rubber cement. Don't even think about gluing these panels. It just doesn't work. [attachment=0]DSC_6104.JPG[/attachment]
Here's another pinhole, again, always at the whorl of the Fafco Revolution solar heating panels:
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Each whorl of the Fafco Revolution panel is an obvious weak spot:
To "winterize" these panels Fafco recommends you shut off the three Jandy- style valves to the panels:
And that you open the one and only faucet drain which is situated at the lowest point in the panel arrangement:
But it really won't help. The pinholes occur due to the manufacturing process creating a weak point in the Revolution panels, which is bound to leak, sooner or later in thousands upon thousands of potential locations. It's just bad engineering and bad design and bad manufacturing. Of course, it doesn't help that my panels are 15 feet below the pool, so add to all that bad factory stuff a badly designed installation. Oh well. It is what it is.
Moving on to the DIY, your first task is optional, which is to melt a hole in the large end of the plug with an allen wrench on your BBQ:
Then, you need to figure out which tube is leaking, which is difficult in some cases because of the location of the pinhole at the crease. After cutting a few wrong tubes, I learned a neat simple trick. Simply press on the two tube adjacent to the pinhole with a 1/8 inch flathead screwdriver:
When you press on the tube that has the pinhole, the water spray will momentarily stop:
Now you have to shut off the water because THIS is what happens if you don't shut off the water (you just can't work under pressure):
But wait! BEFORE you shut off the water, you have to MARK the location of the many pinholes. Trust me, I've tried lots of methods, one of which was whiteout, which does NOT work (because everything is soaking wet after a while).
The best I've found to mark the holes are nails. Yup. Stick nails exactly at the location of the pinhole while the pressure is in the solar heating tubes:
Personally, I wait a day for the panels to dry out (the less you wait, the wetter you will be - but you'll be soaked before the job is done nonetheless).
You'll notice it's now the next day, and the panels are as dry as they're gonna get.
I've gathered my kit (which is in an old grade-school lunchbox because individual tools will slide all over the sloped slippery panels if you don't keep it all together and you and the toolkit will be soaking wet by the time you're done repairing just a couple of holes as you lie on your belly gingerly crawling over the 12-foot long panels):
With 50 or more nails in place marking the holes, you immediately notice ALL the holes are in the weak whorls of the Fafco Revolution panels!
Your first step is to climb onto the panel and locate your first nail:
Your job will be to disable the tube. Fafco recommends you gouge out TWO slices, each about 2 or 3 inches long, one at the very top of the 12-foot long tube and another at the very bottom of the 12-foot long tube. This is a LOT of work for 50 or more pinholes as that's a lot of crawling and a hundred or more gouges. So what I do is simply gouge out a 2 or 3 inch gash 'at' the pinhole. Here you see me starting the cut from the bottom:
The trick is to get as wide a cut as possible (so there is less friction for the plug going in) WITHOUT cutting into the next tube!
Keep gouging out until you've gone an inch or more above and below the pinhole:
Here is a completed cut, which is about an inch or two above and below the pinhole:
Now I lubricate my rubber plugs with shampoo although Fafco says to lubricate with plain water (of which there is always too much):
There is a certain 'technique' to pushing the rubber plugs into each side of the gouge - suffice to say the smoother and more steady you push, combined with the wider the gouge and the consistency of the gouge, and the longer the plug (the Fafco plugs are better for this) and the more you push on the centerline of the plug - the easier the whole thing goes into the tube to plug it up.
With the non-stock plugs (which are shorter than the Fafco plug and which don't have the guiding hole), I generally only get 3/4 of the way in without the plug binding up like an inchworm:
When the plug binds, I switch tools to the thicker 1/8" tipped probe, which allows me to push harder and to push the upper edges of the plug down to force it into the tube:
Finally, when the plug disappears from view, I switch back to the Fafco hex wrench tool, to push the plug in the entire 3-inch lengh of the Fafco pushing tool:
Then I repeat the procedure for the top of the gouge (remember, Fafco recommends two separate gouges!):
Again, I push the plug in as far as I can get it with the Fafco plug- pushing tool:
Here is what it looks like, with the single gouge, and two plugs pushed 3 inches up the tube to disable the tube. Notice pushing the plug in two or three inches also allows room for a second plug - which I generally skip - although it's a good idea to add a second plug (for a total of 4 plugs per pinhole).
Then you simply repeat the steps above with the next 50 pinholes, one by one (until next time):
Improvements welcome!
- A key improvement would be a source for a LONGER rubber stopper. Mine were 3/4" long but the Fafco originals are 7/8" long and therefore they go in smoother.
Many lessons learned are in this DIY ... which I believe are nowhere else on the web.
I write this so that YOU have the information that I never had, when I started this quest four years ago to fix my Fafco Revolution solar heating panels.
Good luck and - please improve with suggestions - as I still haven't found a good supplier for the plugs used in this DIY.
History:
- My solar heating panel installation was designed & installed by Poco Solar at 3345 Keller Street Santa Clara (408-970-0680) about 10 years ago.
- They are the only Fafco authorized dealer anywhere near me, according to Fafco (http://www.fafco.com/find_dealer/default.aspx)
- They are warranted for 10 years, to the original owner only (http:// www.fafco.com/shw/faq.aspx).
- I bought the house about 4 years ago, and this problem has been going on since then (and clearly before then).
- The 13 four-feet wide twelve-foot long panels are 15 feet below the pool (http://www.fafco.com/files/06836C_Pool Owners% 20Manual_10-28-09.pdf)
- They're 'drained' each winter by opening the only drain Poco solar installed and shutting off the three "Jandy" valves provided.
- This is in accordance with the Fafco factory winterizing instructions at http://www.fafco.com/sph/faq.aspx
- Yet, each time I start up the solar heating system, fifty (or so) leaks occur; and another dozen or so occur during the summer.
- Each and every leak (mostly pinholes) is at the weak-spot 'whorl' pressed into the Fafco Revolution solar heating panels.
- Prices for a new Fafco Revolution solar heating panel were quoted by Poco solar as $528 + ~10% tax.
- The Fafco Sunsaver solar heating panels are the same thing, but without the weak whorl, at $370 + ~10% tax.
- Obviously, the first tip to you, the reader, is save yourself ~$175 per panel by NOT buying the one with the weak whorl.
- The salesman will swear the 'whorl' gives you better heating because it 'spins' the water in the tube.
- Personally, I think the whorl is pressed into the tube and it is badly designed such that it becomes THE weakest point in the entire system!
- The second tip is to buy a $45 Fafco repair kit with 20 repair plugs to disable each tube as it springs a leak at the whorl
- You really need the EXACT shape of the chisel gouge that comes with the kit; and the allen-head pusher is just the right size (an allen wrench hurts your hands more)
- And, before some smart aleck suggest gluing the pinholes, make sure you've tried it first.
- You can try all the glues you want (I've tried at least a half dozen); they all fail ... at least they all failed me. YMMV.
- What I do is what Fafco recommends which is to just disable any tube that leaks (about 50 tubes per year!)
- It takes a minimum of 2 and sometimes 4 plugs to disable a single tube (so you need at least 100 plugs for starters)
- The Fafco plugs are of soft rubber of a width of 1/4" tapered to a smidge over 1/8"; length barely over 7/8" with a hole in the large end
- The official repair option is to buy 100 repair plugs at $0.54 each (+~10% tax) from the dealer.
- These are the perfect length to go in smoothly - and they have a hole in them to keep the plug from bunching up like an inchworm
- However, at 50 pinholes per year and over 54 cents per plug and with two to four plugs per pinhole, the Fafco plugs get expensive!
- I found similar plugs at McMaster Carr & WidgetCo for about $.09 each, plus 10% tax + about $5 shipping
- The WidgetCo part number is 7-R000000-EPDM-RS and the cost is $39.00 for 100 tapered rubber stoppers (1/4x1/8x3/4 EPDM)
- The McMaster-Carr part number is "6448K88" and the cost is $8.46 for 100 tapered rubber stoppers (1/4x1/8x3/4 EPDM)
- McMaster-Carr actually gets their plugs from RubberDynamics.com, PN TPE0250-0750, which sells for $5.00 for 100 stoppers (1/4x1/8x3/4 EPDM)
- The only problem with RubberDynamics is you have to buy 10 packs of 100 wherease McMaster-Carr will sell one pack of 100.
- These EPDM plugs are just as wide (1/4") and tapered just as small (1/8") but they're shorter at 3/4" & they don't have the hole in the large end
- I have not yet found on the net a tapered rubber stopper that is the same dimensions yet longer at 7/8" (if you know of any, let me know!)
- You 'could' easily melt a hole in the end by heating a small allen wrench and shoving it into the rubber - but I found it wasn't really necessary.
- If you use the Fafco repair kit, you do not need any other special tools - although dish detergent & an 1/8" round 'tool' are useful when using the suggested rubber stoppers (which are shorter and don't have the extra hole).
Here is a picture of the $45 Fafco solar heating panel repair kit (the shampoo lubricant and the red case are my additions):
[attachment=2]fafco_repair_kit.jpg[/attachment]
100 plugs from the dealer is $54.00 + ~10% tax; the closest/cheapest I found is TPE0250-0750 from Rubber Dynamics at $5.00 for 100 plugs:
Here is what the panels look like when they're dry (notice the water stains, each one of which is a recent leak):
[attachment=1]fafco_solar_panels_leak.JPG[/attachment]
There are perhaps 50 or more pinholes like these, all of which are at the weak-point 'whorl' specific to the Fafco Revolution panels. Notice the many varied attempts at glue, epoxy, and rubber cement. Don't even think about gluing these panels. It just doesn't work. [attachment=0]DSC_6104.JPG[/attachment]
Here's another pinhole, again, always at the whorl of the Fafco Revolution solar heating panels:
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Each whorl of the Fafco Revolution panel is an obvious weak spot:
To "winterize" these panels Fafco recommends you shut off the three Jandy- style valves to the panels:
And that you open the one and only faucet drain which is situated at the lowest point in the panel arrangement:
But it really won't help. The pinholes occur due to the manufacturing process creating a weak point in the Revolution panels, which is bound to leak, sooner or later in thousands upon thousands of potential locations. It's just bad engineering and bad design and bad manufacturing. Of course, it doesn't help that my panels are 15 feet below the pool, so add to all that bad factory stuff a badly designed installation. Oh well. It is what it is.
Moving on to the DIY, your first task is optional, which is to melt a hole in the large end of the plug with an allen wrench on your BBQ:
Then, you need to figure out which tube is leaking, which is difficult in some cases because of the location of the pinhole at the crease. After cutting a few wrong tubes, I learned a neat simple trick. Simply press on the two tube adjacent to the pinhole with a 1/8 inch flathead screwdriver:
When you press on the tube that has the pinhole, the water spray will momentarily stop:
Now you have to shut off the water because THIS is what happens if you don't shut off the water (you just can't work under pressure):
But wait! BEFORE you shut off the water, you have to MARK the location of the many pinholes. Trust me, I've tried lots of methods, one of which was whiteout, which does NOT work (because everything is soaking wet after a while).
The best I've found to mark the holes are nails. Yup. Stick nails exactly at the location of the pinhole while the pressure is in the solar heating tubes:
Personally, I wait a day for the panels to dry out (the less you wait, the wetter you will be - but you'll be soaked before the job is done nonetheless).
You'll notice it's now the next day, and the panels are as dry as they're gonna get.
I've gathered my kit (which is in an old grade-school lunchbox because individual tools will slide all over the sloped slippery panels if you don't keep it all together and you and the toolkit will be soaking wet by the time you're done repairing just a couple of holes as you lie on your belly gingerly crawling over the 12-foot long panels):
With 50 or more nails in place marking the holes, you immediately notice ALL the holes are in the weak whorls of the Fafco Revolution panels!
Your first step is to climb onto the panel and locate your first nail:
Your job will be to disable the tube. Fafco recommends you gouge out TWO slices, each about 2 or 3 inches long, one at the very top of the 12-foot long tube and another at the very bottom of the 12-foot long tube. This is a LOT of work for 50 or more pinholes as that's a lot of crawling and a hundred or more gouges. So what I do is simply gouge out a 2 or 3 inch gash 'at' the pinhole. Here you see me starting the cut from the bottom:
The trick is to get as wide a cut as possible (so there is less friction for the plug going in) WITHOUT cutting into the next tube!
Keep gouging out until you've gone an inch or more above and below the pinhole:
Here is a completed cut, which is about an inch or two above and below the pinhole:
Now I lubricate my rubber plugs with shampoo although Fafco says to lubricate with plain water (of which there is always too much):
There is a certain 'technique' to pushing the rubber plugs into each side of the gouge - suffice to say the smoother and more steady you push, combined with the wider the gouge and the consistency of the gouge, and the longer the plug (the Fafco plugs are better for this) and the more you push on the centerline of the plug - the easier the whole thing goes into the tube to plug it up.
With the non-stock plugs (which are shorter than the Fafco plug and which don't have the guiding hole), I generally only get 3/4 of the way in without the plug binding up like an inchworm:
When the plug binds, I switch tools to the thicker 1/8" tipped probe, which allows me to push harder and to push the upper edges of the plug down to force it into the tube:
Finally, when the plug disappears from view, I switch back to the Fafco hex wrench tool, to push the plug in the entire 3-inch lengh of the Fafco pushing tool:
Then I repeat the procedure for the top of the gouge (remember, Fafco recommends two separate gouges!):
Again, I push the plug in as far as I can get it with the Fafco plug- pushing tool:
Here is what it looks like, with the single gouge, and two plugs pushed 3 inches up the tube to disable the tube. Notice pushing the plug in two or three inches also allows room for a second plug - which I generally skip - although it's a good idea to add a second plug (for a total of 4 plugs per pinhole).
Then you simply repeat the steps above with the next 50 pinholes, one by one (until next time):
Improvements welcome!
- A key improvement would be a source for a LONGER rubber stopper. Mine were 3/4" long but the Fafco originals are 7/8" long and therefore they go in smoother.