Tracing mains water pipe in ground ??

[gray]

What the best (but cheapest) way of tracing a mains water pipe in the ground on private property.

Is ther any thing I can buy, relatively cheaply ??

[Andrew Mawson]

If plastic it's not easy - if lead or galv barrel then normal metal detecting techniques.

If you set a mains tap to be running so it is just cracked open and 'hissing' it is possible, with a steel probe, to hear the hiss along the pipe for quite a distance. The method is to press the probe into the ground and rest your ear against the upper end - don't get carried away and bang the probe through the pipe!

If you have access to one end of the pipe you can insert a stiff wire and use a C-Scope or similar cable detector with the 33kHz genny connected to the wire

AWEM

[Vortex3]

Dowsing rods like ebay item 250390401499. Look it up, read the words.

[You may need to grow a beard first] :-)

Seriously my gut reaction is that dowsing is complete horseshit....but I know a couple of people who swear by it. Perhaps you have a chance to prove/disprove the technology.

D

[Bruce]

I do dowsing using copper brazing rods. I don't care whether it is horseshit or not - it works.

It must be because I have a beard. ;-)

[Bruce]

I should have added ... copper brazing rods *that cost pennies*.

[Lobster]

They should go and take the James Randi Challenge then, and earn themselves a cool million:

far nobody's managed to win it, curiously enough.

David

[Bruce]

There's nothing remotely "paranormal" about dowsing. It's all about detecting subtle changes in the earth's electro-magnetic fields caused by buried services and underground flows.

Dowsing isn't well understood and there isn't, as yet, a demonstrable scientific explanation. That may come in time. But even if it doesn't, all that matters is that it is a useful, easily learnt, practical technique that can help you find buried pipelines, cables and other significant underground features.

There's no need to "believe" in it. It isn't something that depends on "faith". There's nothing "paranormal". It just works.

.

[Andy Dingley]

Mind you: "There is no tracking on this type of shipping"

Why would they need tracking through the postal system? Surely they could just ask their crystal-powered spirit guide?

Were beards the fashion in Atlantis, or did they favour flippers and Bermuda shorts?

[gray]

I was thinking more along the lines of what I have seen the gas boards use. Its yellow with a handle, doh doh its hard to describe.

I've got an old steel pipe that runs down my garden, its now got a hole in it, with water coming out. Repair people say I should replace all of the pipe as its old and perforated. The only proplem is, that the main pipe feeds my house and 3 others, but this pipe carries on down into my garden. But I do not know where it goes too.

Apart form turning the stop c*ck and seen if any one shouts. The only way I can think of is to track it with some sort of detector.

Not even sure if you could hire them.

[PCPaul]

You mean these:

[gray]

I take that these things are expensive to buy. Any idea who might supply them ??

[Frank Erskine]

Some (most?) plastic pipes are laid with a tracer wire wrapped loosely around or close to them for this very purpose.

[Phil L]

The company featured in the link - HSS. And almost all plant hire companies will have them too....according to the link, they are about £40 for the first day.

[Bob Minchin]

You can detect underground pipes with a simple AM tranny radio with a ferrite rod internal antenna. Not it MUST be a medium/log wave AM radio not FM not digital. Tune to a signal Turn the radio until the rod ariel is vertical and note that the signal disappears or becomes very noisy. Hold the radio in this position and walk over the area with the pipe or cable in. As you approach the pipe the signal will re-appear, then when you are directly over the pipe it will disappear again and then when you walk past the pip is will reappear for a short distance and then disappear once more. This effect will only be noticed for reasonably long pipes/wires and you must cross the track of the pipe not just pass the end of it but it does work and is the principle used but commercial detectors.

Bob

[Andrew Mawson]

Yep, and that's the C-Scope I referred to several posts earlier !!!!

AWEM

[Old Git]

Whilst reading their blurb I swear I could hear banjos a playing in the background.

[Lobster]

I can understand how there could well be some scientific basis for it, but Randi certainly classes it as paranormal activity and apparently dowsers are the largest group of applicants for the prize - but he hasn't paid out yet, so go figure!

heard him talking about it on TV once - ISTR he had a test consisting of several buried pipes, through which water could be diverted at will - genuine dowsers ought to be able to detect reproducibly which pipes had water running through them - but they couldn't.

David

[gilli]

Hi, I will dowse it for you for free if you are near Bristol. Or you could ring British Society of Dowsers and ask if there is a dowser in your area who would do it. They are online too. You can find a local affiliated group on their web site. You could dowse it yourself. Email me off list and I can help you understand how to do it, probably by phone. Any kind of rods, like welding rod or just coathanger wire work for me. People have their favorites. I have also used fibreglass or plastic rod effectively. Mains water is one of the easiest things to dowse. Contrary to much rumour, most people can dowse in some way. Practice helps. Not believing it does not stop it working. I have never found anyone who could not "make the dowsing rods work" (talking about "L shaped rods here) Good Luck. David

helps

[The Medway Handyman]

Simpler system

you need both bits, hire them for £80 ish a day.

[The Medway Handyman]

James Randi is a magician by background & well aware of unscientific claims. The test you refer to is the Kassel Dowsing Test. Scientifically faultless & conclusive. None of the dowsers could achieve results better than chance.

Its the ideomotor effect.

money is still up for grabs