National forensic engineering firm, U.S. Forensic, recentlyundertook a large project to investigate a large number of braidedstainless steel water heater connector failures for one of thelargest property carriers in the country. Michael DeHarde, P.E.,and Brian Darr, P.E., worked on the months-long project todetermine the cause of the leaks associated with the braidedstainless steel brand water heater connectors commonly sold at themajor big box hardware centers.

U.S. Forensic was one of several forensic engineering firmsapproached to work on the project, and was selected based in parton the proposal to actually test each unit and photograph theresults of the test, rather than just visually inspect, as proposedby others. As NASA Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun famouslysaid, “One test result is worth 1,000 expert opinions.”

The process began even before the subject connectors werereceived by acquiring several exemplar connectors to understand theas-supplied condition of the connector and to develop an inspectionprotocol. An exemplar connector was cross sectioned to understandthe interior make up of the hose and to assist in the design andmanufacture of a durometer that could measure the hardness of theplastic interior materials.