The 30-year boiler hand who told me to stop using my ears for tube leaks

Back in 2018 at a paper mill job outside of Tacoma, this old-timer named Ray kept yelling at me to stop listening for the hiss and start using soapy water on every suspect tube. I thought my hearing was fine, I'd found two leaks by ear already that morning. But he made me spray down a section I was sure was solid, and sure enough a pinhole started bubbling up that I would have walked right past. He said your ears play tricks on you after a few hours of background noise, and he was right. I still keep a spray bottle in my bag on every hydro test, it takes an extra 20 minutes but I've caught three leaks since that someone with better hearing missed. Anyone else have an old timer's trick that seemed dumb until it saved your butt?

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1 Comment

noahpark16d ago

Ever had your pride take a hit while a guy named Ray saves your bacon with dish soap? Same thing happened to me but with electrical faults, old sparky made me check every connection with a thermal gun instead of trusting my nose for that burnt wire smell. I thought I was hot stuff until he found a loose lug I swore was fine, gun was glowing red where my sniffer said nothing. Now I carry that thing everywhere, and I've caught three breaker failures that would've cooked a whole line. My ears still get a vote, but my eyes get the final call now.