Pressure Test

Any opinion from the plumbers on doing a dyi air pressure test of supply lines? Or do you think just turning on the water is good enough?

How confident are you that you do not have any leaks?

Air pressure test is nice in that you don't need to dry the pipes to repair a leak. WI code does not require an air test of the supply system.

Air does NOT contaminate the joints if you have a leak, but a minute leak can be very frustrating to locate. Water tests will show the location of the leak, but repairing it is more difficult. If you do not think you will have leaks, use air. If you are not sure, use water.

50 lbs of pressure held for 12 hours. Good test?

Usually, but I have had to fix 25 year old joints which "fell" apart because of poor soldering.

50 PSI sounds low...
Here in Sacramento for copper piping the city lets us use city water pressure to test, ie open the main valve,
For PEX we are required to pump up the pressure, 125 I think, could be 150 but I doubt it, as most shop compressors don't go that high.

Procedure, fill piping with water, add a small amount of air to pressurize.

Viking said:

50 lbs of pressure held for 12 hours. Good test?

Click to expand...

Used to be 100psi for domestic water for the time the inspector wanted to look at it, IMHO I think thats a good number.

Decided to rerun my test at 100 psi, and found that my gauge was busted. Needle stuck on 50. Bought a new one and am now having trouble getting my shower riser and tub spout plugs to seal tight. Well, tomorrows another day.

Back when I built my house, I had the well drilled in September before we broke ground for the foundation. I worked on the house over the Winter but didn't get the pump installed until Spring so I didn't have any water to test with. I squeezed it up with air to 100 PSI but lost a few PSI overnight because the house cooled off so much. I panicked the next day and was running around to every sweated joint with soapy water looking for a possible pin hole leak. To my relief the pressure started to climb back up as the house warmed. I had most of the sheetrock up before I got the water on. When I slowly squeezed it up with water, there was some small movement of the pipes through the holes drilled in the joists/studs and I was paranoid that every little ticking sound was water dripping. Thankfully there were no leaks.