Steam leaks are a significant and highly visible waste of energy. It is important to avoiding danger and complications to the public due to a sidewalk cave-ins and the surrounding buildings before its to late. Steam leaks can cause a lot problems if not detected early and fixed. They are often found at valve stems, unions, pressure regulators, equipment connections, and joints.  Steam facilities are intricate systems that have many potential points of failure.  In order to identify and fix weak points in a system you must be experienced and knowledgeable to be able to pinpoint the area of weakness.

Most recently ACS Underground Solutions was called in to a power plant in Hartford, CT that was having issues with losing steam.  ACS took the information from the customer and went to work to find the leak. They set up a pipe survey of the underground steam pipe system. They connected to the supply and used 33 kHz to locate the lines from the manhole towards the life science building, the depth was recorded and marked on the ground for excavation. After the lines were marked out the steam was turned up to full pressure to find the leak.  When the pressure built up ACS walked the line with an acoustic microphone and listened to the fully charged line. Pressure leaking from the pipe was heard and marked 30 ft from the building, the excavation team was brought in and dug the line which was 3 ft deep. This leak was found exactly where ACS marked it and was then repaired, thus avoiding danger and complications to the building.

ACS Underground Solutions finds line leaks in virtually all types of water lines and pipe materials including cooling lines, heating lines, steam lines, municipal and commercial water mains, municipal, commercial and residential water service laterals. Our leak detection technology works with copper, ductile iron, lead, asbestos, polyethylene (high (HDPE), medium (MDPE), and low density (LDPE), PVC, Ric-Wil jacketed pipes, steel pipes, and any pipe that can be pressurized.