“DXmic Pro is user-friendly, allowing our teams to confidently confirm leaks using the filtering functions and bar graph feature. The DXmic Pro is used on a frequent basis by our teams and the device quality gives me confidence that we will be using DXmic Pro in the years to come”
Andrew Mackenzie, Water Leak Location Services

The Challenge

Water Leak Location Services Ltd is a provider of specialist leak detection surveys for UK and international utility companies.

Throughout 2018, Water Leak Location Services worked on a large-scale project with Portsmouth Water, helping them to reduce leakage in their network by 6 million litres per day.

During the project, one of the newly installed PermaNET+ units detected the presence of a leak in a section of 300mm ductile iron pipe underneath a busy stretch of road in Waterlooville.

This particular leak was a concern as the pipe was located at a junction and digging up the road to fix the leak would require traffic management, causing disruption to the road users.

Traffic management is ofte an unavoidable consequence of leak repair, but in this instance, Portsmouth Water and Water Leak Location Services aimed to keep any disruption to a minimum.

Pinpointing the exact location of the leak to ensure the repair takes as little time as possible was critical, but in this case, the high volume of traffic at this junction was causing a problem.

Although PermaNET+ could indicate the presence of a leak, traditional listening methods were ineffective as traffic noise was too loud and was masking the leak noise.

The Solution

To pinpoint the exact location of the leak, Water Leak Location Services used the DXmic Pro Ground Microphone from HWM.

Delivering the highest quality sound recordings, DXmic Pro includes a noise filtering function which helped enormously in this instance. As explained by Andrew Mackenzie from Water Leak Location
Services:

“The straightforward filtering functions enabled us to concentrate on the leak noise rather than the noise created by the traffic. Once the optimal frequency band had been set, we could listen above the pipe using the bar graph feature, pinpointing the precise location of the leak”.

The Result

Utilising the advanced noise filtering function delivered by DXmic Pro, the Water Leak Location Services team was quickly able to filter out traffic noise and accurately locate the leak.

Accurately locating the leak quickly had multiple benefits for Portsmouth Water, including cost savings from keeping both excavation and time on site to a minimum.

For Water Leak Location Services, a key benefit is the enhancement to their reputation as a partner to utility companies:

“DXmic Pro has assisted us to confidently confirm the precise location of leaks, meaning repairs are carried out with minimum disruption and cost to the water utility. These results allow our reputation as a specialist leak detection service provider to grow”
Andrew Mackenzie, Water Leak Location Services

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