Leak Detection

Leak Detection Process
Things home owners can do to determine if they have a leak:
Inside the home

• Look in the kitchen, bathroom/s and laundry for dripping taps or leaking washing machine and dishwasher connections. Damp patches on the walls may also indicate a leak.
• You can check your toilet cistern for leaks by placing a few drops of food colouring in the tank. Without flushing it, look for colouring in the toilet bowl. If it’s getting through, then you have a leak.

Outside the home

• Look around your garden at:
  – Outdoor garden taps/hoses
  – Garden irrigation (including sprinklers)
  – Automatic solenoids and manual isolation valves
  – Exposed pipe work.
• Check your hot water systems and air conditioning units.
• Also look for damp and unstable brick paving and garden areas that may be moist and greener than expected.

How can I detect a leak?

To conduct a leak detection test yourself, follow these simple steps:

1. Ensure no water is being used in your house (turn off all water appliances, such as washing machines and evaporative air conditioners).
2. Read the black and red numbers on your meter. Record the black numbers from left to right. The black numbers represent kilolitres (1,000 litres) and the red numbers represent litres.
3. If the dial is not visibly moving, take another reading after 15 minutes.
4. If the red numbers have changed, the test confirms there is a leak and further investigation is needed.

Times when you will need leak detection:

• Extremely Large Water Bills: If you receive an unordinary large water bill and you have no visual leaks inside your house (i.e. leaking taps, toilets) then you may have a non-visual leak under-ground. This will be wasting large amounts of water and unless something is done sometimes these leaks never become visual. This is where leak detection is used to pinpoint the exact location of the leak. We can also submit a water loss form to the authorities to gain some money back from your water bill.
• Can hear water resinating throughout house but no visual leaks: On occasions clients will hear a “water running” noise resinating throughout house. This will mean a burst pipe somewhere in the house. Even though we can hear the noise in a certain spot of the house does not mean the leak is there. 9 times out of 10 the noise will be resinating from a totally different area of the house. Hence why you will need leak detection to pin-point the leak.

Leak Detection Pricing

Unfortunately, we are unable to give a fixed price on a leak detection job. As we cannot see the leak we cannot give a time frame on how long it will take to find, each job will be different.

Pricing will be at our standard rates as well as a one-off charge of $80 for the hire-age cost for the use leak detection machine.

So how does it work?

Leaks have different frequencies made by the type of leak whether coming from pipes that are under greater pressure or from pipes that are under lower pressure and from the contents of these pipes. These leaks transmit a frequency that is picked up by the electronic leak detector and is applied while being transmitted through the machine. The amplified sounds that the leak is making is picked up by a us and the machine who is then able to pinpoint the location of the leak found.

How bad is too bad?

Once our trained technicians at Plumbing Bros. identify and locate the burst pipe we not only repair the burst but will also advise on future replacement of hot and cold lines dependent on the condition of the copper. Copper over the years deteriorates in soil and therefore simply fixing a burst pipe will not always solve the issue for good. Water and copper work in a way together that water pressure will always put strain on the next weakest point of the copper line, so once a burst is repaired another point of copper will be under strain and no doubt burst over time.

At Plumbing Bros. we will quote on Poly Plastic Pipe renewals and hot pipe lagging under-ground. This will fully solve any corrosion issues on your water line. These types of jobs will always be quoted from site dependent on the size and ran of water line PLUS the condition of the line.