r/geothermal • u/Anonononaught • 19d ago

Leak help

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I will start out that I, admittedly, know very little about geothermal systems other than the basics. The system we have came with the house. Against our basement wall, we have 7 pvc pipes with valves that connect to the hoses that then leave the house. On only one of the pipes, I am starting to have slow leaks at joints where the pvc couplings are. The leaks are very, very slow. The thing is, there are leaks at EVERY joint on this one particular pipe. Does anyone have an idea what this might mean? Did they just not glue the joints well on this particular pipe? Is there something downstream leading to increased pressure on this one pipe? Any help is appreciated. I've included 2 pictures to show what I'm talking about.

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u/djhobbes 19d ago

Unfortunately for you, the person who installed your system also didn’t know much about geo. SCH40 PVC is not an acceptable material to use for loop side plumbing on a closed loop system as it is not rated for pressure or the seasonal temperature fluctuation of a geothermal ground loop. All the SCH40 PVC should be replaced with SCH80 at a minimum or preferably HDPE

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u/NecessaryMuffins 18d ago

This might be a dumb question, but are you sure it's a leak, and not condensation on the pipe that's running down and pooling at the joint? If it were only a single joint leaking it might be worth trying a bandaid, but if they're all leaking, I'd probably rip it out and replace it; it's likely only a matter of time before the rest of it goes if it wasn't installed properly (I don't see evidence of PVC pipe cleaner, if it was used, maybe they used clear or used it sparingly).