Thermowells

If you need a temperature reading off a line that can’t be taken out of service, the well has to go in live. We tap the pipe while it’s still under pressure and fit the thermowell into it, and you end up with a permanent pocket that a probe sits in and can be pulled back out of later.

Australian Hot Taps installs live thermowells, thermometer pockets, probes and flow meters in steel, copper and many other pipelines. We’re the only Australian hot tap company that can install thermowells or thermometer pockets on water lines.

Call 1800 468 827 with your pipe size, material and what’s in the line, and we’ll tell you whether the well can go in live.

Can you install a thermowell in a live pipe?

Yes, and it’s most of what we get asked to do on instrument work. The line stays in service the whole time. The connection itself is made the same way we tee a valve into a live main: a fitting goes onto the pipe, and the tapping is done through it under pressure.

What’s different about instrument work is the fitting. Connecting a resistance thermometer or a thermo couple to existing pipeline infrastructure under pressure needs custom designed and built fittings, engineered to meet most Australian Standards. Off the shelf rarely covers it, so tell us the instrument you’re fitting and we’ll design around it.

Thermowell, thermometer pocket or temperature well?

All three names turn up on drawings and they’re used fairly loosely. We install thermowells and thermometer pockets, which is the same operation as far as we’re concerned: a permanent pocket in the pipe that a temperature probe goes into, for ongoing measurement of the process media inside.

Use whichever term your documentation uses. We’ll follow it.

Which pipes can take a thermowell?

Our thermowell, probe and flow meter installations go into steel, copper and many other pipelines. The wider list of materials we tap under pressure runs to steel, stainless, copper, PVC, HDPE, PE, cast iron, ductile iron, cast and ductile cement lined, AC and most other pipeline materials, so if your line isn’t on the short list it’s still worth asking about.

Every pipeline gets ultrasonic wall thickness testing before we weld or tap it. If the wall’s too thin to work on, we’ll tell you before we start.

Why fit the well live instead of shutting down?

Because a shutdown often isn’t available. Where the media is at high pressure or corrosive, or where shutdown and draining is either economically unviable or system operations forbid it, installing under pressure is the only way the well gets fitted at all.

It works the other way too. A defective probe, thermostat or flow meter sensor can be removed and replaced without shutting the system down.

If the pipe can’t be welded or tapped, there are other ways in. Freezing the line with liquid nitrogen gives a temporary isolation with no fitting on the pipe at all, and stopping the flow with an inserted plug works where a freeze isn’t practical. Describe the job to us and we’ll tell you which one we’d use.

What about flow meters and other instruments?

We also do live flow meter and probe installations from specialist suppliers, so you get real control and understanding of the temperature, pressure and percentage of specific product in the line. If you’ve already bought the instrument, send us the make and the connection detail. If you haven’t, we can talk about what suits the line before you order.

Where the instrument work sits inside a bigger piping job, we also do off site steel fabrication and gas line sizing, along with design and construction of HVAC services.

Why Australian Hot Taps

We were established in 1996 and in 1998 we were the first company accredited by the Office of Gas Safety, now Energy Safe Victoria, to hot tap and stop off live gas lines. 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.

The work goes into natural gas, coke gas, chilled water, heating hot water, potable water, condenser water, steam, compressed air, chemical, petrochemical and various waste product lines, across commercial tenancies, hospitals, civil, sporting arenas, defence facilities, mine sites, steelworks, aluminium smelters, schools, universities, data centres and government installations.

Where the instrument work has been

Live thermowell work happens in buildings that cannot be shut down, which in practice means hospitals and large commercial towers. Fitting a pocket into a live chilled water line at a hospital like the Royal Melbourne, or into a riser at a CBD tower, so the sensor can go in and come out again later without the circuit ever coming down.

That last part is the point people miss. A thermowell is not just about getting the sensor in. It is about being able to replace a failed probe in five years without another shutdown.

What helps us quote it

An instrument datasheet answers most of this on its own. Without one, these are the parts that matter:

• Pipe size and material
• Wall thickness, if you know it
• What’s in the line, and at what pressure and temperature
• The instrument going in, and the connection size and thread or flange it needs
• Whether this is a new well or a sensor swap in one that’s already there
• How you get to the pipe. Above ground, in a riser, or buried and needing an excavation
• Any drawings, instrument datasheets or photos

Call 1800 468 827 or email [email protected]. If you’re not sure whether your line can take a live thermowell, 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.

Thermowell and instrument installation is one of ten live pipeline services we provide. We also cut valves into live steel water mains with the EZ2 system, seal leaks under pressure, squash off lines where nothing else will stop the flow and carry out live gas diversions.

What a live thermowell installation gives you