Pressure Testing - Swimming Pool Plumbing

I'm Lance with Andersen manufacturing company today we're going to talk about pressure testing pressure testing helps us identify the leak status of the plumbing lines that run around the swimming pool there's actually two steps to the process and the first step we're going to determine if the lines are leaking or not then once we've identified a leaking section of plumbing pressure testing is going to be used to pinpoint where that leak is okay so we do need some specialized equipment for pressure testing for the first part of the test but we're determining if the line is leaking or not we're going to need a good garden hose and we're going to need a pressure testing kit the pressure testing kit gives us all the specialized tools that we need for blocking off the plumbing lines so we can determine if it holds pressure or not the first part of a pressure testing kit are closed plugs they're used to put into the openings of the plumbing where we want to block the line this is a standard than stem plug what's important about all the plugs that you use is that they have a straight sided piece of rubber so you get a good strong seal inside the pipe they have a large wing nut so you can easily torque that rubber down to expand it inside the pipe and give it a good strong seal and they have good corrosion resistance heavy-duty hardware so that the plugs will last for years and years and years and be tools that you can depend upon these standard plugs work great for easy to reach openings cut ends of pipe or fittings just inside the pool but there are other types of plugs as well that you'll find valuable this is a hook plug this has an inch and a half extension between the wing nut and the rubber allowing you to make some a seal some distance inside the pipe this will be real valuable in return fitting so you want to get past the threads and make a seal on the smooth part of that plumbing other plugs with a longer extension will be helpful as well this one has a six inch extension between the wing nut and the rubber these are real valuable getting down inside skimmers or cleaner heads in the bottom of the pool inflatable plugs are another style that will be valuable to you these inflate like a balloon so you're putting air into these plugs through a valve like a bicycle tire valve they'll inflate up even into out of round holes or hard-to-reach spots so for the pressure testing process we're going to plug off all but one of the openings with these closed stem plugs in the remaining opening where we're going to induce pressure we're going to use an open stem plug these are the same sort of plugs except they have a hole running through the middle of the stem allowing that air and water to be put into the plumbing system we set the open stem plugs up with a Quick Connect fitting on the other end so that you can quick connect the appropriate size and style of plug to your pressure tester these plugs would be used in easy to reach openings here's one with a Quick Connect fitting at a 90 degree angle that works real well for getting down inside a pump pot for testing the suction side here's a plug with an extension between the wing nut and the rubber works great for putting pressure into skimmers if we're testing from the skimmer side back to the equipment so as I said we'll take the appropriate plug prick connect it to our pressure tester when our pressure tester is a manifold that allows us to control either the water or the air that we're going to be using for the different steps of the pressure testing process for that first step where we're determining if the line is leaking or not we're going to hook our garden hose up turn our water valve towards the water side and allow 20 psi of pressure into the plumbing line once we achieve that pressure we'll turn the valve down to close the system now we're watching to see if the system holds pressure or not if it loses pressure we know we have a leak in that system of plumbing so what we'll do next is the second step of the process we'll have an air source hooked up to our pressure tester on this side we're going to induce a constant stream of air pressure into that plumbing line as that air escapes from the leak into water saturated soil it makes a bubbling gurgling sound and that's we'll be able to pick up with a listening device first thing we have to do is make sure the circulatory system is turned off in order to plug the return lines first of all we have to remove the eyeball fitting from that return and then we'll use either a standard plug to make a seal right in the threads of that fitting or we'll use a hook plug to make a seal in past the threads plug the skimmer we just have to port get the basket out of the skimmer I like to use a long stem plug extender plug for this because means I don't have to reach this far down into the skimmer to get it expanded okay we're going to test a skimmer line now we've already put a plug in the skimmer and we're back at the equipment now I've closed off the valves to the other suction lines I've already tested those lines and I know that these valves hold pressure the one remaining valve is open to the line that we're testing we're going to access our plumbing through the pump up basket out here's an open stump plug that will fit real well into the inlet port of that pump this will go into the male adapter the 90 degree Quick Connect fitting makes it real easy then to attach to our pressure tester now our pressure tester will quick connect to that Quick Connect fitting and I've already hooked up the garden hose to the pressure tester and I've already turned the water on it the spigot at the house now all we have to do is let a little bit of water pressure into this isolated plumbing line we'll bring it up to no higher than 20 psi and close the valve there's usually a little higher pressure as we're putting pressure into the system but we don't want to test it any higher than what the system normally operates at so 15 to 20 psi as usually as high as I'll go we've closed the valve now we can see that the pressure is holding pretty well when we're using water for this pressure test to determine if the line is leaking or not because water doesn't compress under pressure as soon as we lose a little bit of volume out of that plumbing line we'll see a pretty dramatic drop in pressure so we usually never have to do a pressure test for more than a minute or two this line looks good we can move on to the next one once we're done with a pressure test we'll use the relief valve on the back of the pressure tester to relieve the pressure in the system so that when we pull plugs out they're not popping out at us we're testing the return lines at this pool our best access point is after the heater we're going to disconnect the coupler so that we can get right into the return line that goes back to the pool I'm going to use an open stump plug with a hose on it going to the Quick Connect this time and we'll go right into this pipe all right now we're testing our return lines I'm going to bring some water pressure into the plug system close the valve oh we're not holding pressure looks like we've got a leak in this line the versatility of our pressure testing system allows us to induce pressure as we did here at the equipment or we can put open stem plugs into the return fittings of the pool and induce pressure from that side or from the skimmer all right so we know there's a leak in this return line now in order to pinpoint where that leak is we're going to get to the second part of the pressure testing process to pinpoint this leak we need to add air pressure to that leaking section of plumbing so we can make a bubbling gurgling sound underground in order to do so we're going to need an air source and I just have a simple three-quarter horsepower compressor here I need a fairly long air hose so we can get the compressor a long way away from where we're listening so the sound of the compressor doesn't confuse us when we're listening to the leak sound and we also need some sort of a listening device okay we've already got the air line hooked up to the pressure tester back we're going to induce pressure at the equipment connecting to my compressor I'm going to set the pressure regulator here to maintain no higher than 10 psi of pressure and then we'll turn the compressor on now we have our compressor turned on we can hear it in the background but it's not going to make too much noise when we're listening for the leak we're at our pressure tester now we have the air hose hooked up to the air side of the pressure tester I'm going to turn the valve to open it completely up to that air source so we're letting air into this leaking section of plumbing as that air goes into the plumbing and escapes into water saturated soil wherever that leak is it's going to make a bubbling gurgling sound that we can easily pick up with our listening device let's go find it of my listening device ready to listen for this sound we've created and you may be able to hear the compressor in the background that's really not going to be a problem as we're looking for this bubbling gurgling sound because a listening device we'll use has a muffled microphone meaning that it's muffling out all the sounds that are in the air focusing just on the sounds that are in the ground in addition the electronics in the amplifier will filter out different frequencies enabling us to pinpoint the sound of the leak and minimize the outside noises so I'm going to just use my listening device and listen along the path of that buried line at various locations listening for this loud as clearest all right we've located a spot here on the deck where as I listen I'm hearing a very clear and distinct bubbling gurgling sound now the sound you hear is going to be different for every different leak they all have somewhat characteristic sounds but basically what we're listening for is what you'd expect if you were to hear pressurized air escaping from a leak into water saturated soil it's a similar sort of sound you hear if we blow through a straw into a glass of water now once we've identified this location what we want to do is make sure that it's consistent with all of the other information we've gathered around this pool then it makes sense that this is indeed where the leak problem is based on that knowledge we can go ahead and decide what's the best repair solution for our problem you

Channel: Leaktools

Views: 239,990

Rating: 4.7196259 out of 5

Keywords: Pool, Anderson Mfg, cracked plumbing, Swimming Pool Leaks, leak, Anderson Manufacturing Company, losing, trace, loss, line leaks, Leak Detection, spas, Hydrostatic Test, swimming, Spa, test, Lance Anderson, plumbing lines, cra, detection, Pressure, hot tubs, In Ground Pools, above ground pools, water, Pool Leaks, leaking, Swimming Pool (Building Function), How To Find A Leak In A Swimming Pool, Pressure Testing, leaks, pools, cracks, How To Find A Pool Leak, Swimming Pool

Id: sVp62kt_Nic

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2013