Investment of tracer gas equipment

[jaydebruyne]

Just out of curiosity, do the manufacturers say that it will find the leak for definite ?
Meaning it has a 100% success rate ?

Just wondering jayde?

Nope.. they said in conjunction with other methods (acoustic, damp detection) it's a good tool to use if other methods fail. But none of the tools are 100% guaranteed to find the leak. E.g you may pick up the gas but if it's under concrete the pipe may be sleeved therefore you still need to use a bit of savvy

 

[Last Plumber]

So, (and bare in mind I have not seen this equipment), if you test a pipe that you cannot drain and it is under a floor with a pinhole in the bottom of it, would the gas leak out of that or is that one of the circumstances were it is no use?

 

[jaydebruyne]

So, (and bare in mind I have not seen this equipment), if you test a pipe that you cannot drain and it is under a floor with a pinhole in the bottom of it, would the gas leak out of that or is that one of the circumstances were it is no use?

If there's water there the gas can't get out.. you'd need to drain the system completely, in this case the acoustic method might be best by slightly overpressurising the system and listening out for the hiss, or doing a damp detection with a tester

 

[tolly]

If there's water there the gas can't get out.. you'd need to drain the system completely, in this case the acoustic method might be best by slightly overpressurising the system and listening out for the hiss, or doing a damp detection with a tester

Hi Jay, I've done a lot of tracer gas work for another company I subby to. Theres good money in it, they get all there work from insurance companies and get £750 per day for doing a tracer gas job plus £250 for a prelim inspection, this doesn't include my fee's either to assist with the draining down and connecting up the gas to the system, refilling etc.

I would hate to do it everyday though, one of the most boring things I've done.

 

[jaydebruyne]

Hi Tolly.. thanks for the reply. So in order to get work it's best to advertise those services to insurance companies? Even if I did 2-4 a month the tools will pay for themselves I reckon. Plus a selling point is that I can repair and do all the plumbing/heating aspects myself instead of getting in an external engineer adding to costs and time involved etc

 

[tolly]

Hi Jay, The insurance side of it does make up 99% of their tracer gas work, I've only ever done one private job for them. The trouble is most people are not aware of tracer gas so most of the time if there are no evident signs to go on its just suggested to excavate the floor. Are you looking at the Sewerin kit? Theres deffinatly good money in it if you can get the work. I said it was boring but it doesn't help that the company I helped with this were obviously inclined to tracer gas every job as they get paid good money for it, even if it was clearly obvious it wasn't needed (i.e dripping PRV etc) or it shouldn't have been the first course of action and a wet test done first. The trouble with the tracer gas is due to the nature of it being gas and very compressable you can still have a decent leak but it would take an hour to get a drop on the gauges so its always worth sniffing even if theres no drop, but yes ideally wet test first.

 

[jaydebruyne]

Hi Jay, The insurance side of it does make up 99% of their tracer gas work, I've only ever done one private job for them. The trouble is most people are not aware of tracer gas so most of the time if there are no evident signs to go on its just suggested to excavate the floor. Are you looking at the Sewerin kit? Theres deffinatly good money in it if you can get the work. I said it was boring but it doesn't help that the company I helped with this were obviously inclined to tracer gas every job as they get paid good money for it, even if it was clearly obvious it wasn't needed (i.e dripping PRV etc) or it shouldn't have been the first course of action and a wet test done first. The trouble with the tracer gas is due to the nature of it being gas and very compressable you can still have a decent leak but it would take an hour to get a drop on the gauges so its always worth sniffing even if theres no drop, but yes ideally wet test first.

Yeah the Sewerin kit, they seem to be the only manufacturer doing a tracer gas kit.. when you say a wet test, do you mean by searching for signs of damp etc? I have a FLIR moisture detector with a thermal image but it isn't really that good as more times than not you can visually see something damp before it picks it up.. and it can only see 19mm depth so unless the leak is spraying up at the floor it's not much use!!

 

[tolly]

Yeah the Sewerin kit, they seem to be the only manufacturer doing a tracer gas kit.. when you say a wet test, do you mean by searching for signs of damp etc? I have a FLIR moisture detector with a thermal image but it isn't really that good as more times than not you can visually see something damp before it picks it up.. and it can only see 19mm depth so unless the leak is spraying up at the floor it's not much use!!

When I said wet test I meant hydraulic wet test, i.e pumping up pipework with water with something like a rothy test pump.

 

[jaydebruyne]

When I said wet test I meant hydraulic wet test, i.e pumping up pipework with water with something like a rothy test pump.

Oh right.. to accomplish what? If it's a sealed system you can do that without the pump, no? And if the leak is under the floor, what's the pump gonna tell you? Other than there's definitely a leak? (Excuse the question, I'm still a little wet behind the ears and want to learn)

 

[tolly]

Just to confirm there is actually a leak, yes if its sealed heating you could do this with filling loop and the gauge on the boiler.

But if theres a damp patch and its OV heating you will want to test this, you can check f+e is not continually refilling. Also your testing domestic hot and colds just as much as your testing heating aswell. The insurance company we worked for wanted everything tested so its more a ticking boxes exercise sometimes.

 

[jaydebruyne]

Just to confirm there is actually a leak, yes if its sealed heating you could do this with filling loop and the gauge on the boiler.

But if theres a damp patch and its OV heating you will want to test this, you can check f+e is not continually refilling. Also your testing domestic hot and colds just as much as your testing heating aswell. The insurance company we worked for wanted everything tested so its more a ticking boxes exercise sometimes.

Why are you testing domestic H&C as well? Just to do an all round check of all pipework?

 

[tolly]

just to rule it out a lot of the time, if theres a damp patch and its OV heating with either mains or vented H&C they want everything tested.

 

[jaydebruyne]

just to rule it out a lot of the time, if theres a damp patch and its OV heating with either mains or vented H&C they want everything tested.

Ahh ok.. makes sense from an insurance point of view