When Wayne called, he had questions about using PipeFuze, and as I always do, I discuss the first step in deciding if PipeFuze will work for your application. Is the pipe losing 5 lbs of pressure or less over the first 30 seconds you trap the pressure in the pipe? If the answer is yes, it’s likely that your leak is not a full separation and PipeFuze can seal it up. However, you want to pressure test with water only.
Wayne assured me that he had performed a proper pressure test on his skimmer line. He shared, “I put 90 lbs of air into the line and it was definitely leaking.”
Wait .. WHAT? You pressure tested the water line with 90 lbs of air pressure?
“Yeah, it didn’t hold that well,” he said.
Okay, I can’t begin to explain all the things wrong with what Wayne did, but to start with, it’s a water line. You want to know how much water is being lost, not how much air. Air and water compress differently, and the goal here is to keep air out of the line, why are you testing with air?
His answer was, “I didn’t have a pressure rig to put water in the line, I figured it was the same thing.”
I implore you, watch our videos. PipeFuze will not be the repair for every pipe leak you encounter, but under the right circumstances, which are very common circumstances for subsurface pipe leaks, it will solve the problem without breaking up your patios. Pressure test your pipe with water only. If you’ve isolated that your specific pipe is losing pressure, test the rate of loss. Use water. If the water pressure drops from 12 lbs to zero in 2 seconds, your pipe is broken. Dig it up and fix it. If it drops from 12 to 7 lbs or less in just 30 seconds of applying the pressure, circulate the PipeFuze through, as described in the videos and your leak issues should be solved. That’s what it’s designed to do.
In the end, your pipe is in the ground to deliver water from point A to point B. That water pressure in the line, as it runs under normal circumstances, is not going to be 90 lbs. On top of that, it isn’t going to carry 90 lbs of air pressure, so don’t test like that.
Visit our Videos and see how we apply PipeFuze to leaking lines and how users spare thousands of dollars in repair costs to stop simple leaks. It works. For more information, call 818-436-2953.
