How often do water meters go wrong?

[8ob]

I dont think find and fix is a long term solution, Rebs has had his fill of grief and the only sensible solution is to replace it from one end to the other. My guys have recently done one a mile long for a mate of mine, chucked a BT duct in at the same time so now he has a decent supply and fibre optic broadband.


It was up the side of his drive

 

[brightspark]

I dont think find and fix is a long term solution, Rebs has had his fill of grief and the only sensible solution is to replace it from one end to the other. My guys have recently done one a mile long for a mate of mine, chucked a BT duct in at the same time so now he has a decent supply and fibre optic broadband.


It was up the side of his drive

and what was the cost of that if not mates rate how many ££££££

 

[Tigman]

Could you not run a new pipe on the ground , connect both ends test it , then dig a trench and push it in !

 

[hotponyshoes]

Could you not run a new pipe on the ground , connect both ends test it , then dig a trench and push it in !

That's 2400 odd meters of pipe.
Last drum I bought was 100m at nearly £1/meter.
That was from a local store but I bet it's still a grand if you shop around

 

[Tigman]

I understand that but it sounds like it's got to be done , that old black pipe with the 1700 kuterlite compression fittings , the inserts wear away and the olives pop off , changed a lot of it over the farm , only God send was it was run in ditches and never really covered !

 

[8ob]

and what was the cost of that if not mates rate how many ££££££

Not cheap, twas a long way That said Rebs could get a top cut in for the day for £1000 and it will be all opened up, 60 ton of as dug soft sand(cheap) to put around the pipe, pipe will be about 60p pm for 32mm, marker tape with inductor will be about 25p a meter, two skins with a compactor and excavator for the week would cost about £1500, allow a bit of buggerence and time on reinstatements/clean up Fag packet calcs £5968 + vodka and tonic.

Bob

 

[gaz1]

id dig a hole to the pipe every 1/4 of a mile first then pressure test every 1/4 of a mile

from the property that i owned not from the tap this way i could guarantee its not that 1/4 mile

 

[reb78]

id dig a hole to the pipe every 1/4 of a mile first then pressure test every 1/4 of a mile

from the property that i owned not from the tap this way i could guarantee its not that 1/4 mile

Gaz - this is what we have done. We put a stop in half way. Main Meter doesnt change.

We put a stop in 1/4 of the way from our land. Main Meter doesnt change.

We put a stop in 1/8 of the way from our land and the main doesn’t change

That leaves us with the last 1/8th of pipe suspect. So to our boundary and on our land. At this point there is a stop tap followed by the meter we have fitted and then pipe on our land. Remember the meter here reads 200 litres less than the one up by the main in a 24 hour period and it is also still when nothing in the house is on so I think the leak must be on this last 1/8th pipe before it enters our land. But what has thrown me is turning that stop tap off for 6 hours in the day results in only a small movement of the meter by the main. 4-6 litres in 6 hours.

This bottom stop tap is off now (since 9pm) and can have 12 hours off when the pipe pressure should be highest. Lets aee what the morning brings.

 

[reb78]

Not cheap, twas a long way That said Rebs could get a top cut in for the day for £1000 and it will be all opened up, 60 ton of as dug soft sand(cheap) to put around the pipe, pipe will be about 60p pm for 32mm, marker tape with inductor will be about 25p a meter, two skins with a compactor and excavator for the week would cost about £1500, allow a bit of buggerence and time on reinstatements/clean up Fag packet calcs £5968 + vodka and tonic.

Bob

We might as well get a borehole fitted at that cost Bob. The honest truth is i cant afford that at the moment - my dosh has all gone on this house. So temporary (cheap) repairs are needed whilst we save for the permanent solution.

 

[morph]

Why don’t you get another meter exactly the same as your house end one and put it next to the feed end? Then you will know if the mains meter is over reading...

If only 4 litres passed through in 6 hours on 1500 m I very strongly doubt you’ve got a leak, probably air in the line.

 

[Tigman]

Reb when you turn the stopcock off you won't loose a great volume of water from the leak because the pressure drops , when the stopcock is on the water is forced out the leak loosing a bigger volume

 

[reb78]

Reb when you turn the stopcock off you won't loose a great volume of water from the leak because the pressure drops , when the stopcock is on the water is forced out the leak loosing a bigger volume

If we have main, main cock, main meter, 1.5 mile pipe, lower stop cock, lower meter, house and we turn the lower stop cock off, wont main pressure force water out of the leak if its in the 1.5 mile pipe though?

 

[hotponyshoes]

Not sure about my maths but in 1.5miles of 32mm blue pipe you might have 1200 litres+ of water.
If it does have a decent amount of air in it and the mains pressure goes up enough over night you might possibly push an extra 200 liters through the meter if it could compress it up by 15% or so?
That sounds like a lot of air to me though. Does it come out the tap particularly cloudy?

 

[reb78]

Not sure about my maths but in 1.5miles of 32mm blue pipe you might have 1200 litres+ of water.
If it does have a decent amount of air in it and the mains pressure goes up enough over night you might possibly push an extra 200 liters through the meter if it could compress it up by 15% or so?
That sounds like a lot of air to me though. Does it come out the tap particularly cloudy?

Only if we have been cutting and adding stop ends/taps. Its 25mm so a little smaller but still a good 800 ish litres in the pipe.

That’s interesting about your thoughts on the air meaning more water can move through the meter though as I wonder if that could be what is accounting for the small movements.

 

[hotponyshoes]

If 10% of your 800l was air and the pressure on the main doubles that would allow 40 more litres of water to flow past the meter into the pipe with no leakage at all.
(Or maybe not those numbers)
If that length of pipe is clost to the surface I bet a few litres could be taken just from the water heating/cooling and expanding/contracting. Even if it only contracted by 1% overnight that's 8 litres.

 

[hotponyshoes]

But 200 litres is either a load of air left in there from you having it open or 1.3 cows drinking from something connected to it.

 

[Tigman]

If you turn the water off and you have a leak, once the pressure drops the water wont keep flowing from the pipe , when the water is on the pressure forces the water out of the leak !

 

[brightspark]

If you turn the water off and you have a leak, once the pressure drops the water wont keep flowing from the pipe , when the water is on the pressure forces the water out of the leak !

so pressurise the pipe and put a pressure gauge on it

 

[reb78]

If you turn the water off and you have a leak, once the pressure drops the water wont keep flowing from the pipe , when the water is on the pressure forces the water out of the leak !

But i have turned off after the section with the suspected leak (to rule out any accidental use in the house when we dont want to measure house useage) so the suspect section is still pressurised by the water main!!

 

[gaz1]

Gaz - this is what we have done. We put a stop in half way. Main Meter doesnt change.

We put a stop in 1/4 of the way from our land. Main Meter doesnt change.

We put a stop in 1/8 of the way from our land and the main doesn’t change

That leaves us with the last 1/8th of pipe suspect. So to our boundary and on our land. At this point there is a stop tap followed by the meter we have fitted and then pipe on our land. Remember the meter here reads 200 litres less than the one up by the main in a 24 hour period and it is also still when nothing in the house is on so I think the leak must be on this last 1/8th pipe before it enters our land. But what has thrown me is turning that stop tap off for 6 hours in the day results in only a small movement of the meter by the main. 4-6 litres in 6 hours.

This bottom stop tap is off now (since 9pm) and can have 12 hours off when the pipe pressure should be highest. Lets aee what the morning brings.

that helps alot it al;so means you can pipe direct to that point

you shouldnt have any movement at all, if you are not forgetting theres air in water anyway if you are down the hill the air would back flow and vica versa

if you want and you can check between outside tap and inside stop tap

but you need a pressure tester its what we do when checking lines we can test both sides of a line easily

we had a car pump to a pipe with a dial on it, but you can test via a presure vessel and dial nowadays leave overnight test for that