Self healing water leak

[orezok]

Last night my wife calls me and sez "there's water coming out of the laundry room ceiling". I take a quick look and realize that it's directly below the furnace in the attic. The only water in that area is a 1/4" line to the humidifier. I tell her to shut off the valve and I go to get a ladder to access the attic.

I pull the insulation, it's soaked, and there is a spot about 3' in diameter on the ceiling drywall. I start checking for the source and can find no wet spots on the line or furnace. I have the wife turn the water back on and nothing leaks!

I pull the insulation off the water line and everything is dry. I look directly above the center of the wet spot and there is the humidifier on the side of the plenum. I pull the cover off the humidifier and again no sign of water.

The amount of water we caught was about a half gallon, so it was a significant leak. I finally see a single drop on the compression fitting that goes to the emitter. Check the nut and it is tight!

After pondering this for a spell, I think what happened is that the pipe insulation on the line shrunk/settled a little and exposed the last 2" of the line as it entered the emitter. The line froze in that 2" and it put pressure on the ferrule. When the heat came on it partially melted the ice allowing a leak until all the ice melted. It then resealed itself.

Weird!

My cure is to reinsulate the line up to the humidifier, insulate the 1" inside the humidifier box before the emitter and duct tape the insulation to the outside of the box to keep it from pulling back.

I hope... I hope... I hope!

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Make sure your humidifier is on. My humidifier has a humidity sensor in the air intake to the furnace and an outdoor air temperature sensor, and it uses them to determine whether it should run, it's not always running when the furnace is on. So your humidifier might just be off. Mine has a test position where it turns on regardless of temperature and humidity.

 

[orezok]

It's on at maximum setting, but the leak was before the solenoid so it wouldn't matter.

 

[SPIKER]

That could be the issue, however I would also say it could be that the water level valve into the humidifier stuck on maybe a bit of ice got into the valve or the sealing ring inside the valve?

On ones that I have seen are little more than glorified toilet fill valve type valves so could have been about anything causing it to stick.

Mark

 

[orezok]

That could be the issue, however I would also say it could be that the water level valve into the humidifier stuck on maybe a bit of ice got into the valve or the sealing ring inside the valve?

On ones that I have seen are little more than glorified toilet fill valve type valves so could have been about anything causing it to stick.
Mark

I have a Scuttle high pressure spray type humidifier, not a drum or pass thru. It does not have any type of water storage due to being located in an unheated attic.

In any case, it's been 2 days an no further issues.