“As Christmas 2020 approached, Angus Consulting Management Limited (ACML) was dealing with a leak on a heating loop at a casino in Windsor, Ontario.
Alvin Gauthier (Supervisor, Facilities Management Services) knew that their 12” hot water line was leaking, but where? The line crossed a road between two buildings, turned to follow a sidewalk and turned again before entering the second building.
It then returned to the first building after passing through heat exchangers to provide heat to the Casino.
ACML searched for leak detection devices and found PICA and INGU, who together offered the Recon+ leak detection sphere, a device that Angus could launch and trap themselves and save the cost of labour to run the device.
After several tries, and a change in device type, ACML successfully ran two devices through the piping and the leak was detected.
Alvin stated: while the PICA/INGU struggled at first to get a device through the complicated pipe loop, they persevered and were able to not only get a device through but detected a leak and were able to accurately locate it. This made our excavation more precise and we were able to repair the leak efficiently. The photo below shows the actual leak, which was found on an elbow, and was caused by coating breakdown, allowing ground water to corrode the elbow.”
