For plumbers arriving at a new customer’s property, it can be difficult to predetermine the size of a pipe for leak tracing and fixing purposes. The range of different materials and sizes of pipe used throughout the UK is quite extensive, leaving little room for preparation prior to arriving at a leak location.
But with the range of Ferret Heads available for use with your Ferret Leak Locator, you can accommodate most pipe sizes that you come across. When you arrive on site with a selection in your toolkit you can quickly and accurately determine the correct size suitable for investigating the pipe.
Judging the pipe size
The Water Industry Act of 1991, Section 64, means that all new and converted properties need to have a separate metered supply. Every house, building, flat or even part of a building that is separately occupied should have its own water supply and its own meter.
For domestic properties, the standard service pipe size is 25mm blue MDPE or in some cases lead and black poly with small internal diameters generally ranging between ½ inch and 1 inch imperial diameter sizes. But there are variations and in some situations, a pipe can be as big as 50mm outside diameter. So you need to know what size the pipe is before you can tell, which is the right size Ferret Head to use with it.
The Ferret Head range
There are five different sizes of Ferret Head that cover a wide range of pipe sizes and materials. By having these heads in your kit, you don’t need to worry about tackling an unexpected pipe size.The most commonly found pipe materials that Ferret Heads can be used on are all the plastic types such as MDPE, HDPE, black Alkathene and PVC (in the USA). Metal pipes such as lead and copper can also be successfully tackled using a range of Ferret Heads. Even the smallest lead pipes can be investigated using our Size 0 range.
The five sizes of Ferret Heads have an internal diameter minimum and maximum tolerance, to allow you to judge which is the right one to use. They have the following dimensions;
The less that a Ferret Head is inflated, the lower the chance of bursting so always use the bigger head possible for the pipe. And again don’t forget to watch for joints and fittings which may have a smaller diameter than the rest of the pipe.
For more information about the Ferret Head sizes or our leak detection system, please get in touch by filling in our contact form or you can call us on 0800 292 2835.