How to detect water flowing in pipes

Eric_the_half_a_bee

I think we may have a leak somewhere. With everything off (as far as I can tell), I can hear the sound of water flowing through the supply pipe that enters the house, but cannot trace where that water is going.

After the supply pipe enters the house, there is a junction with 3 pipes leading off into different parts of the house. I can't tell which of those 3 pipes has water flowing through it to try and track down the problem.

Any bright ideas?

getmore4less

if it is cold water inlet, the one with water flowing will probably be a bit colder.

check along each of the 3 for any service valves so you can isolate subsections of your house.

if no external overflows have you checked all the toilet cisterns that have internal overflows are not leaking.

EachPenny

Eric_the_half_a_bee wrote: »

I think we may have a leak somewhere. With everything off (as far as I can tell), I can hear the sound of water flowing through the supply pipe that enters the house, but cannot trace where that water is going.

Have you tried turning the water for the whole house off (e.g. at the meter or stopc**k)? Do you still hear the noise?

It is possible the noise is something else, or being transmitted into your home through the pipework. The ease of noise passing through pipework is going to be your biggest challenge in isolating which of the three branches the flow is going through.

Ultimately the only way might be to fit valves to each of the three branches and test them in turn. The same could be achieved by cutting the pipe, fitting a temporary cap to the supply side, and then rejoining the pipes after testing, but if you are going to the effort of doing plumbing work then fitting valves which may have a future benefit is probably worth any additional cost.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Press a long handled screwdriver to each pipe and the other end to your ear[/FONT]

Ant555

As already suggested, check any toilets. This happened to a relative of mine and the water was constantly trickling almost unnoticed down the pan. His water meter readings were way higher figures than were typical for an older person living alone and this was the reason.

When there was a hosepipe ban in force near a friend of mine and the water board would go round at night with what he called 'listening sticks' against the pipes to see if any houses were running off water overnight hoping to remain undetected. I guess this is what Tom99 refers to with the screwdriver.

MoneySavingMole

I'd also check if you're property shares it's mains water supply with any neighbours...

It's quite common in terraced properties, especially up here in the North.

Eric_the_half_a_bee

Thanks all, will have a go today