Testing / Purging

You’ve had a line welded, altered or tied in, and before it goes back into service somebody has to prove it holds. Australian Hot Taps does the pressure test and the purge, on gas lines at high or low pressure, and we turn up with our own instruments rather than borrowing yours.

We’ve been doing this since 1996, and we were the first company the Office of Gas Safety, now Energy Safe Victoria, accredited to hot tap and stop off live gas lines. Much of our testing and purging sits either side of that work.

Call 1800 468 827 with your pipe size, material and what’s in the line, and we’ll tell you what the test needs to be.

Can you pressure test my gas line?

Yes, at high or low pressure, and on all types of pipelines rather than gas installations only. We pressurise the line with nitrogen, keep the test on for the length of time that line needs, and then either sign it off or tell you there’s a leak. If you’d rather we located it than you, we can do that as well.

Where a line can’t be capped off conventionally we have specialist high pressure test plugs. If we’re also about to weld or tap the line, it gets ultrasonic NDT wall thickness testing first.

What pressure do you test a gas line at?

That depends on the material, what the line carries and what it normally runs at, so it isn’t a number we can print here and have it be right for your job.

Tell us those three things and we’ll set the test pressure and how long it has to hold. Where you need the result recorded, not just witnessed, we use 24 hour chart recorders, and the reading comes off digital manometers and bourdon gauges rather than the gauge on the wall.

Washington testing and leak detection

If your specification calls for a Washington test, that’s one of ours. We carry "Washington Type" leak detectors as well as electronic leak detectors.

We get asked for this by name, so to be clear: we’re not an equipment supplier. If you’re after a Washington tester to buy, we can’t help you. If you need the test done, we’ll come and do it.

When a test says there’s a leak but not where it is, electronic leak detection is how we narrow it down. Plenty of leaks can then be repaired under pressure, with the line still in service.

How is a gas line purged?

The method comes down to where the gas can safely go. We purge through external purge stacks, through cooking appliances, into soapy water buckets, and in special situations through purpose made gas purge containers.

It’s the same work whether we’re commissioning a new leg after a live gas diversion or making an old one safe before it comes out.

Purge stacks, and when there’s no outside ventilation

A purge stack takes the vented gas up and away from the work, which covers most external and rooftop jobs.

Plant rooms, basements, riser cupboards and tenancies inside occupied buildings frequently don’t allow for one. We do internal gas purging where no outside ventilation is possible, which is what the special gas purge containers are for. We also do fire stack purging.

Why Australian Hot Taps

The 1998 accreditation came with conditions: a lodged procedure manual, a register of every gas hot tap completed, restrictions on who is permitted to operate, and notice to the regulator before work starts. We’ve worked to that standard ever since.

Our welders are accredited for butt weld, fillet weld and socket weld transmission gas welding procedures, and we can arrange further testing to whichever standard your project requires.

We work across commercial tenancies, hospitals, civil, sporting arenas, defence facilities, mine sites, steelworks, aluminium smelters, schools, universities, data centres and government installations.

What helps us quote it

If you have been handed a specification, that answers most of it. Otherwise these are the parts that matter:

• Pipe size and material
• What’s in the line, and its normal operating pressure
• Whether you want the line signed off, or you think you’ve already got a leak and need it found
• Where the gas can be vented, if anywhere
• Whether the pipe is inside an occupied building
• Any drawings, photos, or the specification you’ve been handed

Call 1800 468 827 or email [email protected]. If you’re not sure whether the line can be tested or purged where it sits, just give us a call, we’ll ask a few questions and let you know.

Where we work

We operate from depots in Bayswater, Victoria and Currumbin Waters, Queensland, and we have clients in all states and territories of Australia as well as the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. We regularly fly in and out to service our clients.

Testing and purging is one of ten live pipeline services we provide, and it usually turns up alongside the others. The new connection gets made by tapping into a live main, the section gets held back with a line stop, and where nothing can be welded onto the pipe the isolation comes from freezing it instead, or from a squash off that closes the bore. We also put valves into live steel water mains by live valve insertion, and carry out NDT of pipe wall thicknesses as part of our piping work.

Our testing and purging services