Journeyman swore by soapy water for tube leaks, I doubted him hard
Old timer on my crew in Gary told me to skip the fancy leak detector spray and just use dish soap and a brush on the header welds. I thought he was stuck in the past, but after 3 hours of chasing a weep on a feedwater heater, his trick found it in 5 minutes flat. Has anyone else had luck with that over the commercial stuff?
That part about finding a weep on a feedwater heater in 5 minutes is dead on, those tiny weeps are the worst because the spray atomizes so fine you can't tell where the source is. What makes soap work better is the water in it evaporates slower than the commercial stuff, so the bubble hangs on the weld long enough for you to actually see it grow. I keep a spray bottle of plain Dawn and water mixed about 4 to 1 and it beats the $20 cans every time. One thing to watch is rinsing it off after, because the soap residue will pull moisture and start surface rust on carbon steel if you leave it sit.