I didn't detach the hose from the pump head over the winter on my Simpson power washing (MS31025HT-S) and the frozen water put a hairline crack in the pump head that attaches to the wand hose. (I did winterize the pump.) Is this something that I can take to someone and get a weld on it, or will I just have to buy a new one (80 dollars or so).
I would be tempted to try to braze it with a butane torch (which are not that expensive). In order for it to work, you would have to enlarge the hairline crack a little to provide room for some other material to flow into it. I think I could tackle this job if the part is steel, and not if the part is relatively thin aluminum. Note that galvanized metal will give off poisonous fumes when heated. I guess whether it's worth it or not depends on how much you like welding, or if you know someone who would like to do it. $80 doesn't go as far as it used to. My first guess was to use "silver solder", but I just read that silver solder doesn't like it's temperature jerked around, so I might be inclined to try another brazing material. That said, someone who repaired my air conditional a few years ago used silver solder to fill a cracked piece of copper tubing and the repair has been successful. I am not an expert, not even close--I learned most of what I know about this in high school! --and from what I understand it is much easier to work on aluminum these days. Good luck! Bill
Thanks Bill and Keith! I looked at those web sites and the prices are about the same all around for spare parts. It would be nice to just repair it so I don't have to worry about the proper fit and so on. The issue with any kind of repair is that it will have to withstand a good amount of water pressure. I'm not sure it even needs to be 100 percent water right. I will check into trying a braze. Appreciated!
Dumb question: With all of the advances in glues, is there a glue that you could that is strong enough to with stand the pressure and hold in water?? Some sort of epoxy??
I repaired a make-up water pump on a boiler once. The unit was cast iron. When it was being installed the fitter turned his wrench into the outlet, cracking a triangular piece off. We replaced the pump with a new one, but I took it home to see if I could weld it back together. The weld cracks were so porous they weeped all along the weld. I had it physically repaired, so I put JB Weld inside on the walls of the pump outlet. A couple years later we needed an identical pump in an emergency situation, so we tried my pump. It's been running for almost 25 Years without a leak.
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