Water Collector O Ring repair

[hcbph]

I have a Campbell Hausfeld PA212102 inline water collector that had started leaking around the O Ring   I cleaned everything up including greasing the O Ring but it still leaked.  I checked online but the O-Ring is not available from Campbell Hausfeld or anyone else.  I got a set of metric O-Rings from Harbor Freight and one size (#222) was an almost match.  It fit the housing fine but was a tad too thick to slide all the way into the housing, this is where the simple solution came about.  I took a red scotch bright pad, pressed the O-Ring down onto the pad by slipping a finger through the hole then pulling the O-Ring a couple of rotations against the pad.  Put the O-Ring in the groove on the bowl and wiped it down with a little Vasoline and it slid together perfectly and held air.
That cost about $7  for a bunch of O-Rings vs. buying a replacement water collector and it appears to work just fine.  This is the first one I've had go bad, but I have a bunch more O-Rings in case others go bad in the future.
Passing this along in case it can help someone else.

[MstrCarpenter]

The next time you replace it, try using silicone grease. Some o-rings don't handle petroleum products; they soften and swell.

[hcbph]

The next time you replace it, try using silicone grease. Some o-rings don't handle petroleum products; they soften and swell.

Hadn't thought of that but I've got another 10 or so O-Rings in the box in case I need to change it again in the future.  Thanks for the info.

AHill - I'm also a farm kid, son of depression era parents. Anyone that grew up in similar situation knows all too well you took good care of your equipment and learned early how to fix it yourself if at all possible. I spent a lot of years helping Dad fix something or later fixing it on my own. Good memories and a good foundation for maintaining your stuff.

[AHill]

Kudos to you for figuring it out and fixing it. It seems these days the skills of maintaining and repairing equipment have gone by the wayside. I remember growing up in Indiana where every farmer's kid was taught how mechanic skills. They knew how to repair tractors, combines, cars, trucks, and you name it. The things that break on a lot of our power tools are often quite inexpensive to replace or repair.