Pressure testing

[plumber0808]

then your doing it wrong if your not ,the rings inside need to be stressed to hold properly

Very few people will do it at 18 bar, manufacturers bum covering statement that cannot be proven if done or not.

 

[atty17]

1.5 x the system working pressure, for 90 min

 

[lame plumber]

if you dont follow mfis when you get a leak its you to blame, if they say pressure to 18 so be it. I prefer leaving speedfit at 10 myself to get the rings to bed in

 

[Howsie]

System Testing | Knowledge Centre | Plastic Plumbing

there you go ladies your all wrong 18 bar for poly plumb so you all been doing it wrong

Well I never! We only use PP...

 

[Howsie]

Am i missing a point by the way lads with air testing ? Sorry to hijack a thread but i read somwhere sombody saying i wouldnt wanna air test to 4 bar i use water much safer. But surely 4 bar is 4 bar weather it be air or water ? Fittings will blow off the same would they not ?

A lot more air in a pipe at 4bar than water. A very different result if it slips

 

[Whn1]

How do you water pressure test at 18bar?

 

[Howsie]

With an hydraulic tester.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Very few people will do it at 18 bar, manufacturers bum covering statement that cannot be proven if done or not.

most dont know to test to 18 bar and on pressure tests they are in theory supposed to be witnessed ' in theory'

 

[hammers4spanner]

I know someone who thought they were testing at 5 bar on copper and all the comp fittings kept blowing off as well as the smaller bore pipe was bending out of shape . He couldnt understand what was happening untill another fitter pointed out he was testing at 50 bar not 5 ,,,,oops

 

[plumber0808]

Does me in getting up to 5 bar

 

[jase158]

speedfit 1.5 times working pressure
http://www.cabp.co.uk/acatalog/speedfit_guide.pdf
poly pipe 18 bar for 15 minutes
System Testing | Knowledge Centre | Plastic Plumbing

thats just crazy. I never fit polyplumb and now never will.

 

[jase158]

Apparently air testing should only be done if the pipes must not have water in them. as too dangerous!!

 

[Howsie]

speedfit 1.5 times working pressure
http://www.cabp.co.uk/acatalog/speedfit_guide.pdf
poly pipe 18 bar for 15 minutes
System Testing | Knowledge Centre | Plastic Plumbing

thats just crazy. I never fit polyplumb and now never will.

Why not. More reason to IMHO.

 

[RGII79]

then your doing it wrong if your not ,the rings inside need to be stressed to hold properly

are you saying every push fit that you fit is not going to hold properly unless a process of testing at 18 bar .

 

[justlead1]

When testing pipe work filling and venting of the air is most important. Water will not compress, so in the event of a stop end say pushing off. I does just that. If air is compressed the stop end will come off like a bullet.
Setting up a situation to branch in a 12" pipe into and existing 24" pipe the test on the 12" (approx one mile long)
Prior to shutting down the larger and cutting in the branch. The 12" had a flanged stop end approx 10'-00" from it destination was pressure tested. But no air was purged, just filled with a 1/2" supply at low end of pipe line and hand hydraulic pump to raise the pressure. When the stopend pushed off the bolt heads of the flange punch holes (bolt head shape like pastry cutter ) in to the 24" pipe. The windows where blown out of a mechanical digger that was in attendance at the time, there were no personal injuries but some very shocked facial expressions. (These were ductile steel pipes)
Try is out on say 3m of 15 mm with a stop end under controlled conditions. You will be amazed.

 

[justlead1]

When testing pipe work filling and venting of the air is most important. Water will not compress, so in the event of a stop end say pushing off. I does just that. If air is compressed the stop end will come off like a bullet.
Setting up a situation to branch in a 12" pipe into and existing 24" pipe the test on the 12" (approx one mile long)
Prior to shutting down the larger and cutting in the branch. The 12" had a flanged stop end approx 10'-00" from it destination was pressure tested. But no air was purged, just filled with a 1/2" supply at low end of pipe line and hand hydraulic pump to raise the pressure. When the stopend pushed off the bolt heads of the flange punch holes (bolt head shape like pastry cutter ) in to the 24" pipe. The windows where blown out of a mechanical digger that was in attendance at the time, there were no personal injuries but some very shocked facial expressions. (These were ductile steel pipes)
Try is out on say 3m of 15 mm with a stop end under controlled conditions. You will be amazed.

 

[atty17]

1. 5 x the maximum working pressure of the system, so for example a combi heating system with a max working pressure of 3 bar x 1.5 gives a test pressure of 4.5 bar look for visible signs of leakage

 

[Rob Sale]

I might try a test of SF, Hep and PP with my hydraulic tester at the weekend. For the craic you understand.

film it

 

[Mike Jackson]

I might try a test of SF, Hep and PP with my hydraulic tester at the weekend. For the craic you understand.

I did this years ago when I had a couple of apprentices with me. We were doing a complete re plumb in Hep and one of them asked me what pressure it would take. I had a length of copper connected to a length of Hep with a speedfit coupling followed by a Hep tee and a loop of Hep. The copper was connected to the tested with a compression fitting (with no paste or ptfe on the olive). One of the ends of Hep deliberately had no insert.

I pressurised it to 120 bar and all of the fittings and pipe held. We then decided to see if we could make it leak. I tried twisting the hep and speedfit fittings at odd angles and it held. I then beat the Hep with a lump hammer until it was flat and it still held. It finally gave in when I smacked one of the fittings with a spade.

I wouldn't worry too much about pressurising to 18 bar.

 

[hammers4spanner]

are you saying every push fit that you fit is not going to hold properly unless a process of testing at 18 bar .

they more than likely hold fine however its UNDER MI advice to test to this .
However if you have an issue arise and you only tested to 5 bar then you have no come back only yourself to blame.Their are a whole host of rule sets to follow regarding testing and i bet 90 % on here just pump in 5 bar for 10 minutes and decide that will do .