Chase that air lock ate my whole Tuesday shift in Gary

Ran a pressure test on a feedwater line and the gauge kept bouncing between 80 and 120 psi, no steady reading. Spent 6 hours swapping gauges, checking the pump, even re-torqued flanges twice before realizing it was a stupid air pocket trapped in a dead-leg branch off the main. Bleed valve was hidden behind a cable tray nobody mentioned on the drawings. Soon as I cracked it, pressure settled in under 2 minutes. Foreman walked by and said, "Shoulda checked the high point first," real helpful. Anyone else fought a ghost air lock that made you question your whole setup, or am I the only one who burns a shift on basic physics?

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anna_hill4d ago

Six hours for a 2 minute fix sounds less like bad luck and more like skipping a step you already knew. High point venting is day one stuff on a feedwater line, and that dead-leg branch should've been on your radar the second the gauge started bouncing instead of holding. A steady swing between 80 and 120 is a classic trapped air tell, not a pump or flange problem. Foreman was right, and honestly the real lesson is you spent the day chasing hardware when the drawing and a bleed valve would've ended it before lunch.

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