Leak Detection

Hi everybody, it’s Richard at Plumbdog, so I’ve just come out to a property where the customers just brought me around the back of the house. He’s showing me his hot water system and he’s asked me to come out here and service it. He seems to think it’s working quite hard, he can hear sort of water travelling through and he sort of thinks his water bills are a bit higher than usual.

Before I get started, if the water bills are quite high and you can hear running water this will point in me towards the fact that there might be a bit of a water leak instead of an actual system fault.

I’m going to go out to the front of the property and just going to check if we’re losing any water there. At the water meter, I’m just going to perform a five-minute test and see if it’s moving at all. If the needle moves, there’s a water leak. Every full circle, every time it goes around 360 degrees that’s one litre.

It’s not moving much but it’s definitely moving. You can see that needle is moving – it’s just moving really slowly. If you blink, you’d miss it. This is the reason we do tests over five minutes.

I’m going to a see if I can figure out where that leak might be. I’ll isolate the hot water system first and see if it’s on the hotline or the cold line. I have retested as I’ve isolated the water cold feed into the hot water system to see if it made any difference and it didn’t. That means is that there is a small water leak but it’s on the cold line not the hotline.

This would mean that the job has now transitioned from hot water servicing to leak detection, which are two totally different specialized services of ours. Have a look at the video to determine the next steps utilised to resolve the leak.

• A burst pipe is often reflected by a sudden increase in your water bill.
• Contacting a licensed plumber to detect and fix your leak will save time, money and precious water.
• Be sure to take care of pipes and avoid damaging them when installing so as to reduce the chance of a burst pipe later on.
• Like & Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date!

Finding the source of a leak can be both time consuming and frustrating. The mystery of what mess you could find beneath the ground may be daunting, but with Plumbdog on hand we can save you time, endless digging to find your leak and many, many litres of water. Here Darius shows us how the team uses their specialist equipment to quickly find the source of the leak and fix the problem.

BURST PIPE
Darius arrives at a call out for a burst pipe and with some initial checks realises the problem is external to the house coming from the cold water main.

FUJI LEAK DETECTOR TIME
Like a stethoscope for leak detection, Darius uses the Fuji Leak Detector to test the area around the suspected leak. Navigating his way closer to the water metre he finds the correct spot to target his digging.

UNEARTHING THE PROBLEM
With the removal of a few pavers and a bit of digging, Darius finds the source of the water leak with damp soil near the copper pipe joining the polypropylene pipe. Turning the water main back on confirms this is the source of the leak, with water starting to gush out of the poly pipe. With a little more digging Darius reveals a number of damage points in the poly pipe that have weakened and split open.

AVOIDING THE ISSUE
The damage found was most likely caused during the installation phase of the build. The pipe was relatively new and should have lasted a lot longer, however the pipe looked as though it had been dragged and damaged, weakening the pipe. A nice reminder that taking care of your plumbing materials (like Plumbdog do!) will mean less hassles down the line.

THE SOLUTION
Darius decides the most efficient way to repair the damaged pipe is to extend the copper pipe down to where there is some undamaged poly pipe to connect to. Darius is careful to add a bend to the copper pipe extension to help relax the angle of the join to the poly pipe. Sharper angled joins are a possible contributing factor to damage and weak spots in the pipe.

Plumbdog uses specialist equipment, in this case the REMS press gun to join the copper pipe extension to the existing copper pipe. The press gun is used to crimp the sections of pipe together. A Plasson fitting is used at the other end of the copper pipe extension to connect to the existing undamaged poly pipe.
Tip: Always check that the Plasson fittings have the grab ring around the right way as sometimes they can be put in the fitting back to front.

TESTS AND CHECKS
Plumbdog takes pride in getting the job done well which is why the final checks are so important. Darius turns the mains water back on and runs the nearest tap while visually inspecting for leaks around the newly installed pipe. The water metre is also tested for a period of time to ensure that no water is being lost anywhere else.

GOT A LEAK?
Let Plumbdog play their favourite detective game!
If you’re in the Greater Perth area, invite us round to find your leak. We’ll bring our favourite gadgets and will be happy to get the problem sorted for you and save you time and precious water!

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