Pipe & Cable Detector

badger09

Had a very scary experience this week when electrician fitting new fire, drilled through a gas pipe.

Had already had old gas fire supply capped by Gas Safe engineer, but this 'feeder' pipe was in corner of room, running floor to ceiling, barely covered by plaster. I'm sure it shouldn't have been fitted like that. 

We want to have bookcase built in on same wall. Can anyone recommend a detector which will tell us where any other rogue pipes might be?

This one perhaps?
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bosch-Truvo-Pipe-and-Cable-Digital-Detector/p/150542#

Grenage

Any chance you could get the gas capped closer to the start of the feed?

neilmcl

badger09 said:

Had a very scary experience this week when electrician fitting new fire, drilled through a gas pipe.

Had already had old gas fire supply capped by Gas Safe engineer, but this 'feeder' pipe was in corner of room, running floor to ceiling, barely covered by plaster. I'm sure it shouldn't have been fitted like that. 

We want to have bookcase built in on same wall. Can anyone recommend a detector which will tell us where any other rogue pipes might be?

This one perhaps?
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bosch-Truvo-Pipe-and-Cable-Digital-Detector/p/150542#

I have that one, it's cheap but it does work quite well. As it's a metal detector only it doesn't detect studs in the wall.

One would've thought a competent electrician would have a used a detector of his own before drilling into random walls.

Section62

badger09 said:

Can anyone recommend a detector which will tell us where any other rogue pipes might be?

This one perhaps?
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bosch-Truvo-Pipe-and-Cable-Digital-Detector/p/150542#

I looked into this recently, and very nearly got the Truvo.

One of the reviews I saw referred to it needing to be sent away for calibration from time to time.  There's not much information about this online, but seems to be corroborated by the instruction manual.  The lack of direct manual control of the calibration made me think it was a device which wasn't intended for user adjustment/repair and therefore potentially could just become electronic junk after some period of time.

So I went for this 'old school' Draper one instead -
https://www.drapertools.com/product/13818/Combined-Metal-Voltage-and-Stud-Detector

Available from a well-known online company for less than £20.  I figured I'd be able to buy another one around that price at some point in the future for a lot less money than the cost of a Truvo plus one factory re-calibration.

The Draper one also has a 'stud' function that the Truvo doesn't.

In use the Draper one has been fine. A little oversensitive on electrical detection, but the thumbwheel sensitivity controls allow easy and rapid adjustment of sensitivity to generally overcome this.

If you have a cat or dog make sure they are safely in another room before switching on - the detector noise is quite alarming if they aren't used to it.


Detecting unknown buried pipes and cables is always a bit hit and miss - detectors can find any metal in the wall, (e.g. plaster bead/mesh) so can give false positives. And some pipes are plastic so won't trigger a metal detector.

badger09

If only! The problem is that we, and Gas engineer who came to do initial & 2nd capping off, could not see where the supply was routed from the meter to the now removed gas fire.

We're in a bungalow. He looked in the loft but couldn't trace pipe. 

Several years ago the layout was reconfigured, including re-siting kitchen & blocking off doorway into living room. We suspect they took easy (dangerous) option, rather than dig up concrete floor, or box pipes in.  

neilmcl

Section62 said:

badger09 said:

Can anyone recommend a detector which will tell us where any other rogue pipes might be?

This one perhaps?
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bosch-Truvo-Pipe-and-Cable-Digital-Detector/p/150542#

I looked into this recently, and very nearly got the Truvo.

One of the reviews I saw referred to it needing to be sent away for calibration from time to time.  There's not much information about this online, but seems to be corroborated by the instruction manual.  The lack of direct manual control of the calibration made me think it was a device which wasn't intended for user adjustment/repair and therefore potentially could just become electronic junk after some period of time.

So I went for this 'old school' Draper one instead -
https://www.drapertools.com/product/13818/Combined-Metal-Voltage-and-Stud-Detector

Available from a well-known online company for less than £20.  I figured I'd be able to buy another one around that price at some point in the future for a lot less money than the cost of a Truvo plus one factory re-calibration.

The Draper one also has a 'stud' function that the Truvo doesn't.

In use the Draper one has been fine. A little oversensitive on electrical detection, but the thumbwheel sensitivity controls allow easy and rapid adjustment of sensitivity to generally overcome this.

If you have a cat or dog make sure they are safely in another room before switching on - the detector noise is quite alarming if they aren't used to it.


Detecting unknown buried pipes and cables is always a bit hit and miss - detectors can find any metal in the wall, (e.g. plaster bead/mesh) so can give false positives. And some pipes are plastic so won't trigger a metal detector.

It can be calibrated by yourself. Although, out of the box it seems quite accurate.

Section62

neilmcl said:

It can be calibrated by yourself. Although, out of the box it seems quite accurate.

The instruction manual describes a manual recalibration process (removing the battery whilst switched on etc), but also refers to a sequence of LED flashes which indicate "...the measuring device must be sent in for service."

There's limited information online as to when/how that sequence might happen, but it does seem that once in that state there is no user method of resetting/recalibration. (for safety reasons, because it is too far out of calibration to work properly)

It would be interesting to hear if any Truvo owners have experienced that situation and how much Bosch charged for the service.

On the other hand, if you register as a MyBosch member you get a 3-year guarantee - which might be a long enough expected lifespan for some people's needs.

EssexExile

Remember that none of these devices are fool proof. No smoking and stand on a rubber mat when drilling!

neilmcl

Section62 said:

neilmcl said:

It can be calibrated by yourself. Although, out of the box it seems quite accurate.

The instruction manual describes a manual recalibration process (removing the battery whilst switched on etc), but also refers to a sequence of LED flashes which indicate "...the measuring device must be sent in for service."

There's limited information online as to when/how that sequence might happen, but it does seem that once in that state there is no user method of resetting/recalibration. (for safety reasons, because it is too far out of calibration to work properly)

It would be interesting to hear if any Truvo owners have experienced that situation and how much Bosch charged for the service.

On the other hand, if you register as a MyBosch member you get a 3-year guarantee - which might be a long enough expected lifespan for some people's needs.

Not in my instruction manual it doesn't:



The only mention late of sending the unit back to Bosch is when it shows a series of lights denoting a fault.

To be clear the unit itself auto calibrates and you would only need to go through the manual process very occasionally.

badger09

badger09 said:

If only! The problem is that we, and Gas engineer who came to do initial & 2nd capping off, could not see where the supply was routed from the meter to the now removed gas fire.

We're in a bungalow. He looked in the loft but couldn't trace pipe. 

Several years ago the layout was reconfigured, including re-siting kitchen & blocking off doorway into living room. We suspect they took easy (dangerous) option, rather than dig up concrete floor, or box pipes in.  

Apologies. This was in reply to Grenage

neilmcl said:

badger09 said:

Had a very scary experience this week when electrician fitting new fire, drilled through a gas pipe.

Had already had old gas fire supply capped by Gas Safe engineer, but this 'feeder' pipe was in corner of room, running floor to ceiling, barely covered by plaster. I'm sure it shouldn't have been fitted like that. 

We want to have bookcase built in on same wall. Can anyone recommend a detector which will tell us where any other rogue pipes might be?

This one perhaps?
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bosch-Truvo-Pipe-and-Cable-Digital-Detector/p/150542#

I have that one, it's cheap but it does work quite well. As it's a metal detector only it doesn't detect studs in the wall.

One would've thought a competent electrician would have a used a detector of his own before drilling into random walls.

Thanks

To be fair to him, he was drilling very close to existing power socket & none of us expected a gas pipe to have been installed between them, in a corner, vertically & covered only by a few mms of plaster. It was the first time it had happened to him in his 30+ year career. 

I'll also take a look at the Draper. we had something similar years ago, but it wasn't very good. 

neilmcl

I'd also point out that although the Bosch Truvo retails around £36 you can pick these up on ebay for much less. Mine cost me £20 a few months back and it was new.