Dry pressure testing

[Mgrant]

If using a dry pressure tester like this; Monument Dry Pressure Test Kit | Specialist Plumbing | NoLinkingToThis

What is need to get the system up to pressure? I have only used wet pressure testing pumps before.

 

[Mgrant]

Would a foot pump be up to the job, if it wasn't a great deal of pipework?

 

[townfanjon]

I have somthing similar, I like many thought of the old ' if it holds air it will hold water '
Nah..... No it doesnt , I had a leak on a system what I tested with air, it held air . Filled it with water and had a leak, went and bought a proper pressure tester, yes they cost plenty but they work .

 

[ShaunCorbs]

just some info for dry testing you cant get above 0.5bar so no going over 0.5bar for air

 

[Mgrant]

never knew 0.5 bar was the highest you can go with air

 

[SimonG]

Hydraulic test for me, at least you can find it if it does leak 🙂

 

[AWheating]

air compresses, wata doh. so air is alot more dangerous.

 

[plumben]

I use a dry tester as I can use it for the gas before connection to the meter
But I only get it out for water on big jobs, I normally test upto 1 bar if no ones in the house, but I only do it to make sure there's no open ends or missed fittings, before filling up

 

[tolly]

I always find the problem with air testing is because it compresses so much unlike water if it does have a tiny leak it takes an age to show a pressure drop on the gauge, at least with water you only have to loose a tad to show a drop on the gauge...also its a lot safer

 

[Mgrant]

Do you get up to pressure via a foot pump or.compressor?

 

[AWheating]

A foot pump, but evacuate the building while doing the test and make sure you have all rams in order.

 

[Mgrant]

Why is it stated that 0.5 bar is the highest you can test with for air. As said I have always used a.wet.pressure.testing pump before.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Why is it stated that 0.5 bar is the highest you can test with for air. As said I have always used a.wet.pressure.testing pump before.

air compresses so it you have a pop /burst the volume the air coming out is alot more than water and could hurt someone like a potato cannon when you were in school

 

[plumben]

Do you get up to pressure via a foot pump or.compressor?

Foot or hand pump will do, and don't use SPF blanks on open ends unless theres no one in the room/building

 

[Mgrant]

Thanks, so if you can only go up to 0.5 bar it's not really suitable to test water and central heating pipework as this run at a lot higher pressures than this.

 

[flat Eric]

Turn off the flow and return to the boiler
use foot pump and put 3 bar In it
have lunch ( clean up, check emails etc etc )
If its still on 3 bar 30mins later all is good.

This has never let me down.

 

[Eric withy]

have a look see
[DLMURL]http://copperplumbing.org.uk/sites/default/files/content_attachments/pressure-testing-piping-systems.pdf[/DLMURL]

 

[Mgrant]

Thanks, so you can go above 0.5 bar. Could only see 0.5 bar being acceptable for gas. 1.5 times the working pressure of 0.2mb

 

[Roger Welton]

Silom, do a reasonably priced wet tester

Pressure Testers | Manual, Electronic Pressure Tester

 

[AWheating]

0.5 bar acceptable for gas?

A air rifle has legal limit of 12ft lbs, this is enough to kill small animals with a 1.77 pellet. Imagine what a 15mm speedfit cap could do at 3 bar or even higher.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

0.5 bar acceptable for gas?

A air rifle has legal limit of 12ft lbs, this is enough to kill small animals with a 1.77 pellet. Imagine what a 15mm speedfit cap could do at 3 bar or even higher.

On domestic you won't go over 0.20 on ng and it's the volume air rifle stores a small amount

 

[stevetheplumber]

weve air tested at 10 bar that way you can hear the leaks hep trep used to put 20 bar into a piece with two elbows and skip with it

 

[AWheating]

0.02 bar

 

[ShaunCorbs]

0.02 bar

or 2000 pascals

 

[Mgrant]

gas runs at 0.2mb so I suppose you would test this with a air with a dry testing kit to 0.3mb 1.5 x working pressure. As said I am doing my nvq level 3 to get my gas quals. I will stick to wet testing when testing c/h systems etc then.

 

[hammers4spanner]

From what i recall you need a licence if you test with air above a certain pressure.

 

[flat Eric]

A 15mm poly plumb end cap does about 20 feet at 3 bar, it wont kill you. As someone already said its to do with volume. A paintball gun ( spyder fenix ) needs 750psi to fire a 3 gram paintball to the legal limit of 300 feet per second where as a Eclipse Etha only uses 200psi. If you dont use enough air it wont show a leak, all CH circuits and gas pipes should hold 3 bar with ease so if they pop whats the point of a PRV set at 3 bar?

 

[AWheating]

0.2mb is a little low for a domestic gas supply

20ft is BS unless you had a very small volume of pipe work. Any gun paint or air uses a tiny volume of air/ gas. It's not the cap end that will do you harm anyway it's the small shard of metal from the failure. Some water mains I've worked on recently have been 8bar so I would need to air test and 12bar. Sounds stupid to me, buy a water test pump and keep safe.

And gas pipe work can only be tested to the regs.