OG 20 Leaking Problem

[DJ]

I posted this in the saftey section and then saw posting regarding OG problems in the Tips, Techniques..section and decided I should post here. I did send a message to Bead-Tique, who seemed to have a similar problem, however, I wanted to post here if any has had this exact problem with the seive bed covers/caps.

My OG20 is leaking huge amounts of air from the sieve bed cylinder plastic cover. There are plastic covers on the top and bottom which appear to be the caps to the sieves and the bottom one is cracked in multiple places and this seems to be where the leak is coming from - not 100% sure but the right sieve has no air coming out around it, and the left one is leaking like crazy. Does anyone know if the square plastic covers that are screwed down to the sieve are actually the caps? Has anyone had this problem?

Thanks!

[hotflashwanda]

Turn the machine off, you don't want zeolite coming out into your shop. If the caps are cracked, you will need replacement sieve beds. They are easy to replace--just call OGSI and describe your problem, and hopefully they will be covered under warranty. I replaced them on my machine with no problems. Make sure you replace both cylinders at the same time.
Anita
www.nitabeads.com

[DJ]

Thanks Wanda. I was not aware of the zeolite issue so thanks for advising. I haven't run it since the problem started. So even if the CAP is cracked on one sieve bed only, I need to replace both sieve beds? My warrant ended a year ago, however, I have sent an email to the manufacturer - hoping someone is working on the weekend - but looks like I'll have to wait until Monday to speak to them. Good to know that it's easy to replace them. Thanks again for posting a reply.

[hotflashwanda]

The sieve beds do both need to be replaced --if you only replace one, the other will not be operating at the same capacity and it can cause it to fail. I learned that the first time I replaced a sieve bed. :-) It's possible that OGSI might still cover your sieve beds, if they were faulty in any way--cracking of the caps might mean they were faulty. I will keep my fingers crossed that you'll be covered!
Anita
www.nitabeads.com

[DJ]

I wanted to close out this post on a positive note to let others know the outcome if anyone were to run into this same problem and to thank those that provided feedback.

Thanks Anita for your postings - they helped tremendously.
Thanks Bead-Tique for answering my email regarding your similar problem
And thanks to Kym (Brisbane, Australia) who had posted a detailed explanation of almost the exact problem I had back in December 2008.

Because of the information obtained here, I was able to contact OGSI with the knowledge that they had had reocurring problems with the OG15 and OG20 sieve bed caps cracking and that they had redesigned with aluminum caps, and that when replacing that I needed to replace both. Someone had posted also that Fred Morgan is very helpful and I remembered that he was the person who actually sold me the generator, so I sent an email to Fred over the weekend and early Monday morning he responded:

"I am in receipt of your kind e-mail message dated Sunday 14 June 2009. Rest
assured, this matter will be taken care of for you in a timely manner. Your analysis is correct, we had some sieve bed end-caps 'randomly' crack during a brief period of time in 3rd quarter 2007 thru 1st quarter 2008. Your analysis is precise regarding the situation at hand. Rest assured, I have forwarded your message along to our service manager, Mary Grace Keenan, for respective follow-up with you. You should be hearing from her shortly."

I couldn't be more pleased with the customer service I received from Fred and Mary Grace. Mary Grace contacted me immediately, and they shipped out 2 seive beds today "under warranty." I was concerned that I might run into an issue since I've had the generator almost 2 years (warrantly ended at a year) but I only had a little over 200 hours, but they made this extremely hasslefree.

So again, thanks everyone for your help, and if you have either of these generators and run into any problems, be sure to check for plastic caps and make sure they aren't cracked.

DJ

[LyndaJ]

We've had great customer service from them as well.

[kbinkster]

I'm so glad you called Fred. He is a stand-up guy.:)

[hotflashwanda]

DJ, that is great news! Thanks for the update. :-)
Anita
www.nitabeads.com