Acceptable leakage on water supply pipe?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, there is a gas test but I believe it’s no good on a long run but worth an ask.

I’m going to dig onto the pipe now, about 30mtrs down from the previous leak, cut and cap it and hope the leak still shows on the meter.

A gas is much more fluid, so much more will pour out than would the water from the leakage point - therefore much easier to find the leak(s).

 

[YorkshireMidge]

Yes, there is a gas test but I believe it’s no good on a long run but worth an ask.

I’m going to dig onto the pipe now, about 30mtrs down from the previous leak, cut and cap it and hope the leak still shows on the meter.

Just found an example of what I was thinking of. Variotec 460. Guess it's just a practical issue of filling a long run with enough gas. But I was just thinking that your 1L/hr works out about a tablespoon of water a minute, akin to a dripping tap or ball valve. Just can't see how the correlator mics would pick a leak that small up along a pipe. Even the gas solution might not work at that sort of level.

 

[Ian H]

Exactly what i’m thinking.

As I see it i’m going to be cutting the pipe and adding more joints, every joint has 2 possible points that can leak.

I just can’t see the benefit. I want a new job

 

[Ian H]

Google found several hire companies, https://www.inlec.com/seba-kmt-correlux-p-2-digital-correlator-and-xmic-water-leak-detection-kit being one at £315 per week hire.

It appears to use two microphones linked by wireless to the central computing unit so would probably be more expensive than a system using wires to the microphones.

Yes, i’ve used the Seba one before but it didn’t really help.

You input the length of the pipe and it should tell you how far along the pipe the leak is. If you don’t know the distance you can add the distance as 100, and then you can use the result as a percentage. You can add upto 8 microphones onto the pipe in various places.

 

[Ian H]

A gas is much more fluid, so much more will pour out than would the water from the leakage point - therefore much easier to find the leak(s).

I think the problem is getting that much gas into the pipe and maintaining the pressure while you find it. I’ll recommend this method if I don’t find the leak today