Pre-Insulated Black Steel Chilled Water Underground Pipe

Have you contacted the manufacturer? Has no one in your organization ever used this before?

If you have done some research on this it would help to know, so it isn't repeated.

My guess is that if the wire is broken, you have no leak detection. You may have an indication of where the break is, if the detection system is installed properly. I'm also guessing that the capacitance change of the (intact) wire would detect leaks. (Look at capacitive leak detection)

What have you done so far?

The manufacturer of the pipe must have instructions available on how to splice the trace wire and how to test it.

Why bother reading the directions and searching for an answer when typing all your questions in CR4 is faster?

The project is far away and the manufacturer is not in sight or contact is the reason of putting this post in the forum.

^{Shaking head in disbelief, he writes:}

The wires will need to be connected. Soldering is best. Each connection, if not properly done MAY look like a leak to the detection system. It remains a mystery to me how the thing will ever work if no one on the job knows how to install or start up the system, or how it is supposed to work.

Good luck. Where is this project?

Engineering intuition combined with the feedback from this Forum might enable us to put two plus two together!

Unfortunately, in this case, 2+2 may well=3.

Was just curious, what is your specific procedure for checking resistance in very long wire between two points say "5 km" apart?

I didn't write the specs, I just copied and pasted from their website.

Thanks. Reason I asked question was I had a contractor tell me a few years ago that wires sometimes don't survive e.g. pipe pulls though the ground, as little wires generally and understandably have less pulling strength than much bigger, thicker pipelines (and my little multimeter leads won't span 5 km!)

Information about any links/website(s) about the art and science of trace wires, how they work and the instruments that go with it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

This spec seems to be improperly written. I think they mean the the total resistance should be not more than 200 ohms per 5 km. (Not "om"s, unless mantra chanters constitute an electrical resistance.)

The resistance of the wire should be known from tables. If you measure the resistance of two wire lengths, and subtract the wire resistance, you will get the resistance of the joint between the two wires. Then simply add it all up. (Your test leads will each need to be just a bit over one wire length between splices.)

I think it was a typo as well. I just merely cut and pasted. It took me all of 3 minutes to search and post my response. What's scary is to consider that someone bid and won this contract with no idea of what they needed to install and test this system correctly. How can you bid a job if you have no idea if you need special tools or equipment in order to install the lines in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations and procedures?

I just finishing writing a job proposal last night. I had 25 hours of research in to this project before I ever hit the cloud and created a formal written document. I do my homework down to the last detail before I submit a bid or order a single screw. Maybe others do it differently.

good question???????????????????