Anyone got experience with Water Thumper underground pipe detectors?

[awemawson]

I need to locate two branches of buried 25 mm MDPE blue water pipe. One crosses a ditch, one crosses a small stream, both of which I will be clearing with a ditching bucket on my JCB 3CX.

The pipes were trenched 12 - 18 inches deep in the field and then pressed firmly into the silt as far as possible when crossing the water. This was done 10 years ago and the precise pipe runs locations are lost but I know them within a few feet. Obviously I want to avoid tearing up the pipe !

Neither branch has a suitable place where I could insert a tracing wire or I could easily follow them with my CAT scanner tool. (My taps are fed from underground Tee fittings on the pipe run so I cannot simply insert a wire at the tap)

Wallowing about in Google I understand that there are various device to impose an acoustic signal in the pipe that can then be located. The simplest being a solenoid valve turning water flow on / off at an adjacent tap the sensor being a fibreglass pole to put to your ear. Then there are more complex ones with amplifiers etc.

Has anyone had success with such a tool, or maybe has an unused one lying about ?

 

[brightspark]

have you tried the bent welding rods or anyone that does it works for me

 

[Anguz]

Water thumpers work well with a listening stick

 

[Barking Mat]

have you tried the bent welding rods or anyone that does it works for me

Water divining ?

Hmmm....

 

[pptom]

Thumpers work ok if you've got a decent listening stick and good ear. I've used them on the odd occasion, but only for giving an idea of pipe location when we don't know which direction it's going.
Mdpe doesn't carry a sound well, unlike metal, the ground maybe soft in the field, which again won't help with the sound and obviously, the closer the thumper to the location the better. I reckon you'd do well to locate them accurately.
Probably easier to gently slit trench and locate them first if you have a rough idea.
I've also had good success with divining rods (bent fencing wire for me)

 

[brightspark]

Water divining ?

Hmmm....

id put money on it working and i dont normaly gamble

 

[Barking Mat]

id put money on it working and i dont normaly gamble

I know some reputable people with the same beliefs.

I'm not saying it doesn't work.

But for me it's in the same league as 'dream catchers'.

 

[Gragson]

I know some reputable people with the same beliefs.

I'm not saying it doesn't work.

But for me it's in the same league as 'dream catchers'.

Or, fake a roman map and get Tony Robinson and his GeoPhys team in - if he's not too ****** that is, although I read he's gone tea total.
I just googled geophysical equipment, expensive

 

[Agroshield]

have you tried the bent welding rods...

Since the pipes he is trying to locate are both crossing watercourses, how do the divining rods distinguish between the ditch water and the pipe water?

 

[Barking Mat]

Since the pipes he is trying to locate are both crossing watercourses, how do the divining rods distinguish between the ditch water and the pipe water?

What diameter welding rods, more to the point, how many amps ?

Coat, door etc.

To the Welders Arms....

 

[Pete.]

Since the pipes he is trying to locate are both crossing watercourses, how do the divining rods distinguish between the ditch water and the pipe water?

Obviously the ditch is bigger so you use 2mm rod to find pipes and 4mm for ditches.

 

[brightspark]

Since the pipes he is trying to locate are both crossing watercourses, how do the divining rods distinguish between the ditch water and the pipe water?

if the pipes are crossing the water course you run parallel to it either side a small distance away the rods will cross when your over the pipe either side accurate to about a meter

 

[blackolive (Ste)]

Bic pen casings and steel tig rods with about 6 inches bent at 90 degrees to go into the pen casings, and get divining

 

[Barking Mat]

Bic pen casings and steel tig rods with about 6 inches bent at 90 degrees to go into the pen casings, and get divining

Yes, I believe that's how it's done.... But...

All said, I'm not knocking you or @brightspark , but...

As I said to the 19 year old trainee today, have you seen the Star Wars films ? Use the 'force'.

 

[awemawson]

I must confess to being skeptical regarding water divining, but would be delighted to be proved wrong should anyone like to come and show me.

 

[voipio]

Like the ADE-651 (Advanced Detection Equipment) sold to the Iraquis!

 

[brightspark]

I must confess to being skeptical regarding water divining, but would be delighted to be proved wrong should anyone like to come and show me.

it works on cables empty clay drainage pipes plastic water pipes . i have a hp sewerage pipe 10 foot down across my land and it picks that up no probs. i gave a few of my mates ago doing it and not telling them where it was. worked for 2 of them 4 it didnt. pity .i couldnt find owt decent worth money though

 

[Barking Mat]

I must confess to being skeptical regarding water divining, but would be delighted to be proved wrong should anyone like to come and show me.

It's such an established 'art'.

I'd like to see a scientific evaluation of it real effectiveness.

But I'm a sceptic at heart.

I'd search YouTube for back up proof, but, it's YouTube.

 

[pptom]

I must confess to being skeptical regarding water divining, but would be delighted to be proved wrong should anyone like to come and show me.

Just give it a go, no skills required. I too was skeptical, but when them rods move together it's amazing. There is the thought that if you think you know where the pipe is, you subconsciously move the wires yourself.

Still, there is no scientific basis for it and the water company banned us from using them as it was bad publicity and they couldn't be seen to be using mumbo jumbo when they had thousands of pounds worth of kit which wouldn't always work

 

[brightspark]

It's such an established 'art'.

I'd like to see a scientific evaluation of it real effectiveness.

But I'm a sceptic at heart.

I'd search YouTube for back up proof, but, it's YouTube.

a mate is a jcb driver he uses rods and also a cat . not a moggy niether must have something to do with magnetic fields