DrewE wrote:
Just curious and thinking out loud here...
Aren't there seals on either side of the gate of the gate valve? Assuming my understanding of that is correct, what keeps the seals on the downstream side wet and hence in good shape? I'd think if being moist was a requirement that we'd see far more cases of seals breaking down on one side but not the other of the valve.
I would tend to suspect that seals mostly wear out from aging rather than being dry, but I'm certainly no expert on the chemical properties of rubber or rubber-like gaskets.
If you keep it up with this sound logic, people's heads are going to explode.
Dry seals and wet seals both age and deteriorate at the same rate. If a seal fails, it does so because of some other factor. Like I said before, old wives tales die hard.
