How to fix three commonly found tiny leaks before they become big trouble

Don’t panic! Here’s how to fix three commonly found tiny leaks before they become big, big trouble

BY RAY FORD

THE PROBLEM WITH cottage country? Too many drips. “Despite our best engineering, leaks still happen,” says Sean Peterson, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo. “Any sort of system or device we have, no matter what it is, eventually corrodes, wears down, or fails.” Don’t take it personally, it’s just physics. Peterson explains that high-pressure substances will always escape to low-pressure areas if they can. “Any pathway that emerges in the membrane separating the two provides a release,” Peterson says. Take a blow-up mattress, for example. When your cat—inevitably—claws a hole in it, the barrier containing the high-pressure air becomes compromised and the air just takes the path of least resistance out. Same goes for water escaping a pipe through a pinhole or blown connection. And…

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Cottage Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, June/July 2024

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