New plumbing test, what's a leak?

[bcatv]

Building a new pool with lots of plumbing due to size and in-floor cleaner, and wondering what typical pressure leakdown during test is. Plumber pressurized to 20psi Thursday afternoon, 48 hours later one pump/cleaner set is down to 10psi, the other is at 16psi. 3 Pentair valves on the lower set, 2 on the higher, 2 Paramount cleaner valves on the higher psi side, 1 on the lower, an Intelliflo pump and a C&C+420 on each set.
Does this seem like normal levels of leakdown?

thanks,
Vince

 

[bcatv]

Should have mentioned, this is air-only, no water in plumbing yet.

 

[Belldiver]

What are your temperature variations from when they pressured up to taking the readings? If they did not purge most of the air out of the system, temperature will make the test worthless and very difficult to detect leaks. I pressure tested my plumbing up to 50 psi. That's probably more than most plumbers will do, but I would go to at least 25. It's possible your inground cleaning system may be pushing that much pressure or a cleaning robot. I would not blow this test off...If you end up with a leak after the gunite is shot, it may be almost impossible to repair it.

Here's an old thread with a discussion on the topic...

pressure-testing-criteria-t6336.html

 

[MEvan]

I dont do a lot of pressure testing testing and I usually use water so that I dont have to lug air around but I wouldnt be really comfortable with any drop in pressure. See if they pressure stabalizes, but make sure it stays consistent for atleast a day to be safe.

 

[bcatv]

Thanks guys; while the rate of change is slowing, it seems clear there is some leakage, I just don't know what typical is from new valves and pumps/strainer covers. I think I will bring it up to 30 psi myself tomorrow and use up a few gallons of soapy water. There is probably close to a thousand feet of pipe in this system, so a 10 psi drop is a significant amount of air.

 

[cobra46]

My system was not presure tested with valve and pumps installed but those are all above ground so any leak there would be obvious and fixable after decking and gunite.

My pressure was pumped up to my maximum water pressure of 45 psi. Once they had the system leak free it would fluctuate between 45-41 depending on the temperature. The key is that the fluctuation was very consistant.

Do NOT let them tell you what you are seeing is normal.

Let us know what happens.