Acoustic leak detection

An unexplained water bill, a drop in pressure, or ground settling around your property? For a leak outdoors — under asphalt, concrete, paving or grass — thermal imaging does not apply. Acoustics does.

How the method works

When a pressurised buried pipe fails, the escaping water generates two kinds of noise: a structural sound that travels along the pipe itself, and the sound of water striking the surrounding ground, which rises vertically to the surface. Our equipment picks up exactly these frequencies, which are inaudible to the human ear.

The equipment

• Echologics — patented sensors and algorithms tuned to the low-frequency sound characteristic of plastic pipework, where conventional geophones are effectively deaf. Sensors clamp externally to valves and hydrants, so the supply is never shut off.
• SebaKMT correlators — two sensors at accessible points calculate the breach from the difference in arrival time, accurate to centimetres.
• SebaKMT geophones — ground-level confirmation within the indicated zone, with digital filters that reject traffic and wind.

What you gain

• Minimal excavation — you dig at the defect instead of opening the whole run.
• No downtime — the survey proceeds without halting production or logistics.
• Settlement prevented — catching it early stops ground being washed out beneath the surface.

If you close every tap and the meter in the yard keeps turning, you almost certainly have a leak on the external run.