How is the retest allowance used?

Multiply base test time by one plus the allowance share. A 20% allowance turns 10 base hours into 12 total hours, and the extra 2 hours are the setup and retest overhead.

What are effective minutes per valve?

The cycle time inflated by the allowance, the average bench time each valve consumes in the batch. At 15 minutes and 20%, it is 18 minutes per valve, so the bench clears 3.33 valves per hour.

Is a liquid or gas leak test different?

The arithmetic counts valves and hours either way. A liquid hydrostatic test reads leakage in drops per minute, and a gas test reads bubbles per minute, so only the acceptance criterion changes.

Why did two old result rows disappear?

They repeated inputs. The setup and retest overhead was the allowance printed as a percent, and the average cycle time was the entered cycle time. This page shows the effective minutes per valve instead.

Industrial Valves, Actuators & Flow Control calculator

Seat Leakage Test Time Calculator

Find the hours a seat leakage test batch takes and whether the bench window covers it. The retest allowance adds setup and repeat tests, so hours rise with it while the effective minutes per valve set the rate.

What this calculator does

Seat leakage test hours for a valve batch, with the retest allowance and margin against the bench window.

Formula used

Base test time = valves to test × test cycle time per valve ÷ 60
Total test time = base test time × (1 + allowance ÷ 100)
Setup and retest overhead = total test time − base test time
Effective minutes per valve = test cycle time × (1 + allowance ÷ 100)
Valves per hour = 60 ÷ effective minutes; shift margin = available hours − total

Inputs explained

Valves Queued for Test: Valves waiting in the batch for a seat leakage test.
Test Cycle Time per Valve: Bench cycle time one valve takes at the test station.
Setup and Retest Allowance: Covers setup and repeat tests as a share of base time.
Available Test Hours: Hours the bench can give this batch before the window closes.

How to use the result

Best suited to planning a hydrostatic test shift, checking a batch against the bench window, pricing retest allowance into a quote.
A batch with several valve sizes needs one run per size group. Bench changeover between sizes sits inside the allowance, not added again.

Current U.S. benchmarks

The U.S. has 21,668 machinery manufacturing establishments employing about 1,086,146 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).

Common questions

How is the retest allowance used? Multiply base test time by one plus the allowance share. A 20% allowance turns 10 base hours into 12 total hours, and the extra 2 hours are the setup and retest overhead.
What are effective minutes per valve? The cycle time inflated by the allowance, the average bench time each valve consumes in the batch. At 15 minutes and 20%, it is 18 minutes per valve, so the bench clears 3.33 valves per hour.
Is a liquid or gas leak test different? The arithmetic counts valves and hours either way. A liquid hydrostatic test reads leakage in drops per minute, and a gas test reads bubbles per minute, so only the acceptance criterion changes.
Why did two old result rows disappear? They repeated inputs. The setup and retest overhead was the allowance printed as a percent, and the average cycle time was the entered cycle time. This page shows the effective minutes per valve instead.

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.