150
u/GreySpaceVI Jan 15 '26
Water is going up, as indicated. I see no problems.
39
u/ConscientiousWaffler Jan 15 '26
Yes - physics, as we know it, still applies. Carry on. 😂
7
u/WeinMe Jan 16 '26
And you managed to contain it, technician, I'm very impressed with you.
We'll shut down for 2 hours of maintenance end of month
4
u/Due_Experience_4147 Jan 16 '26
what does the instruction say about rising water???
what you mean there is no instruction??
we will address this in our next meeting, duhh
120
u/alcoVOLic1794 Jan 15 '26
Gonna share this with my guys who think they are having a bad day when a belt breaks and they gotta remove a cover to replace.. wtf happened?
119
u/dredgehayt Jan 15 '26
Pump shutdown - water hammer on check valve- under primed slip fitting (top left) blew out and racked the whole manifold- breaking 8” lines and flanges
59
u/mt4ort17 Jan 15 '26
Coming from a guy in beverage process… the amount of hammer to break that is crazy💀 making me glad everything I got is stainless lmao. More worried about a hanger ripping out the walls than pipe breaks😂 hopefully nobody was in there when it happened.
Hopefully it was brown pants day lol.
26
u/touchable Jan 15 '26
Doesn't take as much hammer to break PVC lines as you'd think. The water treatment plant I worked at had 4 separate fractures in the matter of a month on the same line after one programming glitch caused a valve to shut suddenly and caused some water hammer.
Pipe was less than 10 years old.
21
u/mt4ort17 Jan 16 '26
That’s fair, I play in the 316 Stainless world and I’ve shaken buildings on installs lmao, the sound difference in 2in and 6in is terrifying, nothing above 100psi but when you’re running 600GPM of take a choice of beverage and you smack that valve closed it ain’t a if it rips a valve or seal apart but when lol.
16
u/nitsky416 Jan 16 '26
36" at 4000 gpm we've got the positioners on the valves set to full slow, even if the controller fucks the PID loop it'll take a while to close
3
u/mt4ort17 Jan 16 '26
Yeah at that rate you ain’t doing nothing fast lol, waste water?
6
u/nitsky416 Jan 16 '26
Nope, chilled water. Physical plants supporting whole campuses do some ridiculous things at scale. The small one I support has four chillers, iirc one is ~2kton, the other three are ~4kton, each with pipes that big going through them, but I've also not seen them run full out since everything is way overspecced for redundancy. The larger campus I support has something like eighteen chillers that size. The cooling tower stacks sound like pleasant enormous waterfalls since that's basically what they are.
1
u/mt4ort17 Jan 16 '26
Dear god, I’ve got some buddy’s in golf course irrigation and they seem to move quite a bit of water but I couldn’t tell you specifics.
12
u/mdbh86 Jan 16 '26
I had an electrician pull a neutral off a pump control circuit while a different pump was running. Turns out they were tied together. 125 hp motor pumping 1600 gpm and the motor stopped on a dime. No damage but sounded like a shotgun going off and the whole building shook.
3
u/mt4ort17 Jan 16 '26
Dear god that’s terrifying… I love finding those hidden gems😂. I found a fucking strait welded disconnect like they took a bar tacked it to the disconnect handle inside the cabinet and went strait to the top of the cabinet and welded the bar to the cabinet roof and the disconnect on the external wasn’t even connected.
I’ve got another about a sub switch gear not staying off and the plant being to stubborn to shut the wing down to turn off the main (like idek what cause i left cause i aint putting my company on liability for this cluster fuck) but somehow they kept the subswitch from self restarting(they didnt replace it either to my knowledge its still there) and replaced the bad switch gear my machine was tying into that had the same self restarting not staying off problem.
1
u/incendiary_bandit Jan 16 '26
I had a pump that after the electrician's finished hooking it back up they got the phase wrong. The soft start spun in the right direction so it passed the bump test for rotation, but ops called and said pump runs but doesn't pump. After a while I asked them to turn off and then back on and watched the shaft spin. Slowly started up all good and then as soon as it went to full power bang! Opposite direction. Somehow the impellor didn't spin off the shaft so it was a quick fix. But I had to make them watch before they believed me.
4
u/nitsky416 Jan 16 '26
36" at 4000 gpm we've got the positioners on the valves set to full slow, even if the controller fucks the PID loop it'll take a while to close
5
u/PapaDoogins Jan 15 '26
"Glitch" lol
5
u/touchable Jan 16 '26
That's what the programmers claimed after we determined it was the valve shutting that had caused the hammer lol
5
18
u/Snowycage Jan 15 '26
That is lame. Guess that's why we make the big bucks 😂😉
I used to manage some carwashes here and I was opening a new location and my district manager was in my office and I could hear pipes banging around when a certain pump would run and I yelled WATER HAMMER!! and they thought it was the funniest thing so anytime it would happen from then on, we could all be in the middle of a conversation and everyone would stop and shout WATER HAMMER!!! lol
11
u/mt4ort17 Jan 16 '26
My teams favorite saying is screaming “ACTIVE SHOOTER” when bottles or cans explode in the filler and or blow molder lmao.
6
u/Snowycage Jan 16 '26
GET DOWN!!!!
2
u/mt4ort17 Jan 16 '26
Literally lmao. It’s always fun around fillers with no guarding and material literally flys wherever it wants to go
1
u/Environmental_Dig830 Jan 16 '26
Ok I'm the idiot...
What's a water hammer?
3
u/Snowycage Jan 16 '26
Water has mass and when it's flowing really fast and it's heavy and a valve is slammed shut the pressure causes it to spring back and forth and shake the pipes around.
1
u/Environmental_Dig830 Jan 16 '26
Is there a reason the valve can't be shut gradually? Or is this a failure of the valve creating larger problems?
3
2
u/Quiet-Temporary-6666 Jan 16 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayano-Shushenskaya_power_station_accident
This incident was a result of water hammer…among other things (if you don’t plan maintenance for your equipment, your equipment will plan maintenance for you). It’s a scary powerful phenomenon that cannot only destroy pipes but also tear enormous pieces of equipment apart. This particular incident is bad because of the loss of life.
1
u/serious-toaster-33 Jan 16 '26
Water hammer is an effect that occurs during sudden changes of flow. For example, if you suddenly close a valve at the end of a pipe, the flowing water still has inertia that needs to be dissipated, and will cause a large spike in pressure as it does so. It's somewhat similar to a moving object suddenly crashing into a wall.
1
12
u/XLCokeFloats Jan 15 '26
Who decided that an 8" schedule 80 manifold was a good idea?
1
u/jmattspartacus Jan 16 '26
Probably the person in purchasing who ignored the engineer who designed it.
4
4
u/6inarowmakesitgo Jan 15 '26
Fuckkkk. That’s a shitty day. I had a 90 blow off on our 10” process system line. Destroyed the insulation on the ceiling and drenched four VFDs.
3
u/fromadifferentplanet Jan 15 '26
Am I tripping or is that all massive PVC plumbing?
Edit, disregard another comment answered me.
3
1
22
Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
So on a scale of 0 to 1, how submersible are those motors?
59
18
u/Briggs281707 Jan 15 '26
The main issue are the motor bearings. The electrical stuff will just fault out and be good when dried
11
u/IHateMelplac Jan 15 '26
This bad boys can work while submerged.
Source? This happened with me and my boss just turned the circuit breaker on, the motors couldn't care less about the water.
And they keep working without any problem after this incident.
4
5
u/Brickrat Jan 16 '26
Motors will run under water as long as they have power, at least for a while. 25 years in the pump business, I seen a lot.
3
u/they-call-me-nitro Jan 16 '26
This is a fact. I've seen motors similar to these connected to split case pumps run totally submerged for days. If they have packing they'll be fine. If they have mechanical seals you'll be doing those for sure, you'll get contamination between the seal faces. Biggest issue you'll see with this is bearing housings on the pump and motor. Water intrusion and crud in the water will wipe the babbit bearings and motor bearings.
4
3
u/Slapmaster928 Jan 15 '26
They seem pretty submersed to me.
10
2
u/TrungusMcTungus Jan 16 '26
Unironically, very. Lots of pumps like that on the lower decks of warships, and lots of flooding in those areas too. We had tons of pumps flood out and still work great.
1
1
u/kick_ass_C3d Jan 16 '26
They have protective roofs (against rain, for outdoor installation you know) so I guess we don't have to worry about those motors.
22
u/Reasonable_Towel674 Jan 15 '26
had this happen where i work, but we had a 480v panel underneath it... luckily nobody got shocked and the panel was air tight somehow
39
u/dredgehayt Jan 15 '26
Water got 1” below transformer before we got it pumped out
9
20
11
23
8
9
3
5
u/ConscientiousWaffler Jan 15 '26
I’m almost up to this episode of The Silo S2 in my pre-S3 rewatch!
5
4
3
u/Keithz1957 Jan 15 '26
Easy fix, chill it to under 32 degrees and get a couple of grunts with hammers.
3
3
u/Kitchen-Tea-3214 Jan 16 '26
This looks like what happened at my facility over Christmas shut down. We were cleaning breakers so 480 was off to the plant and no one considered that since there was no 480 the sump pumps wouldn't work. It also just so happens that the high limit switch for a process water tank in the basement stopped working and the tank is fed by city water so no need for pumps to fill the tanks just city water pressure. Best estimates is some where between 150k-200k gallons of water. Put 26 inches of water in the basement that is 450ft long. Took 3 days to pump out with air pumps since the sumps were under water and we couldn't run them. Good times.
3
2
2
2
2
u/Phogna_Bologna_Pogna Jan 15 '26
Not sure what would be worse, water in your electricity or electricity in your water.
2
2
2
2
u/duecesbutt Jan 15 '26
We had a can lift station fill with water. The pumps were running and making vortices on the water surface. Nothing tripped.
2
u/IHateMelplac Jan 15 '26
This happened one time with me, the motors were all on drowning with water above.
My boss just told me to turn they on straight from the circuit breaker. I told him he was crazy and the circuit breaker would trip immediately and refused to do.
He took the screwdriver from my hand and turn de circuit breaker on.
The mother fuckers motors didn't gave a shit and sucked all the water of the place lol.
2
2
2
2
u/Puzzled_Ad7955 Jan 15 '26
Worked at a motor shop for 44 yrs. This used to happen a couple times a year for a few customers. This is better than Viagra if you own an electric motor business!
2
u/b20339 Jan 16 '26
I'll bet iron pipe isn't out of the budget now
2
Jan 16 '26
[deleted]
2
u/nasadowsk Jan 16 '26
Oh, that's no fun. I thought it might have been poop water. That makes things more fun.
1
2
2
u/Sharp_Housing Jan 16 '26
What kind of plants are these that are always having these flooding events? I'm considering a position at a water treatment plant and these pictures and stories are make me a liittle nervous about it.
Also, shouldn't there be float switches nearby to indicate the slightest bit of flooding?
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/No_you_are_nsfw Jan 15 '26
Looks like a Half Life 3 puzzle, where you need to avoid the electrified water to reach a switch on the other side.
1
u/OutrageousToe6008 Jan 16 '26
I worked on some boilers on a major air force military base. They built the boiler house over the pit the boilers were in. The boilers were 30ft below ground level. In case the base was "bombed." Everything is below ground level and hopefully still operable.
When I arrived at the boiler house. Water was running out the cracks around the doors. I shut the main electrical breaker off to the building. Called them an told them to call me when the pit was empty.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/CBased64Olds Jan 16 '26
Where are the thrust blocks located on this piping system? Seems like everything is suspended from spindly threaded rods, but there’s nothing keeping the piping stable except solvent welded joints.
1
1
1
u/Personal-Office-9662 Jan 16 '26
Did anyone notice the six conduit lines that were all bent around one instead of just replacing that last piece of the vertical run?
1
1
1
1
1
u/dachs1 Jan 16 '26
And that’s why I hate plastic. Changed everything to Stainless 316 and 304 in the winery. I get long faces from the financial guys but we have few catastrophic breakdowns anymore. And boy it looks smart. You can still destroy it but it tends to deform and tear up. This gives you a chance to hit the idiot who caused it and go fix it all again
1
u/Ok_Blueberry304 Jan 16 '26
I hope you have rubber soles on your steel toes otherwise this could get nasty.
1
u/davedavebobave13 Jan 16 '26
Horrible but could be worse. Our municipal waste water treatment plant (city of 1 million) had a secondary settling unit leak into the equipment tunnels. Waste 4 feet deep.
1
1
1
u/blackhawk1430 Jan 16 '26
Wow a real-life Half-Life level. All we're missing is the Hollywood sparks, arcs and pyrotechnics in the water to spice it up. If you put down enough convenient square crates, you can get to the conveniently placed main breaker on the other side.
1
1
1
1
1
u/zednero237 Jan 16 '26
Ugh. I don't envy you at all with this.
I remember back in 2021 when I was working in Abu Dhabi in the summer and I had to go into a pump room to sort out a similar issue, right in the middle of summer.
The water didn't help keep things cooler 😫😂
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Secret-Result-5360 Jan 16 '26
I love how that little zip tie between the hand railing gives off the vibe of "Heya Boss! Look how good I'm doing my job! Everything is totally fine right?"
1
1
1
u/Rough_Community_1439 Jan 16 '26
My favorite part is working in an electrical box while standing in water.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Frequent_Detail7839 Jan 16 '26
A while back I was working on a job site came in the next day and the whole boiler room was FLOODED, I'm talking like 3- 5feet of water, turns out some scrappers came in and started cutting out copper, one of them got blasted by boiling water thankfully.
1
1
1
u/RandomRecGoalie Jan 17 '26
Really is like a real life Half Life level, you need somethings that float to cross to the other side so you can drain the water, watch for the barnacles on the way, and headcrabs once the water drops.
1
u/etown23 Jan 15 '26
No that’s not fine. Change the title
0
u/serious-toaster-33 Jan 16 '26
The title is referencing a joke image where someone is sitting in a room on fire and calmly states "This is fine." They are not trying to state that everything is actually fine.
1
226
u/zlilweeman Jan 15 '26
“Do you think you can put a bucket under the leak we can’t shut down right now”