Time to move up from my Navi Track Locator.

[fixitright]

Time to move up from my Navi Track Locator.
Was doing some commercial work, deep and through concreate and was tough with my Micro reel sonde. I will be doing more locating and line tracing.
This will only be for mapping, locating and inspecting Drain/Sewer lines

Friday's job had me locating through 8 inch of concrete in a 2-inch line with my micro reel. Had a hard time picking that up.
After that I was using my full size sea snake in a 8 inch line about 8 ft deep with thick asphalt and had trouble until I got away from the asphalt.
My Scout is great I just want something better

Rather stay with Ridgid but who knows. Suggestions?

[fixitright]

This post inspired tons of responses. LOL

[Bob D.]

That's because there's no one here any more, at least no one who will take the time to comment or even give your post a like so you have to think no one likes what you're putting out there so why bother. At least that has been my thought after some of the posts I've made over the past year. The people who frequent this forum the most any more are the spammers. I know because I see the junk they post and delete it before most ever come across it. There are 5x (or more) as many spam posts as meaningful posts in any given week. I usually delete over a dozen spam posts and ban 5 to 10 new 'members' a week.

[fixitright]

Well I guess that answers that. I do see Plumber Rick is back to some extent which is a good thing.

[PLUMBER RICK]

How can I ignore a nice compliment. Thanks,

I’ve had lots of locators prior to the beginning of cameras. Right now my go too locator is the Seektech SR 20. Chances are if I had to start right now and upgrade, I would go with SR 24 that has gps and Bluetooth. Also the 18 volt battery adapter. Much nicer than using the c cell batteries.

Nothing wrong with the scout when on a budget.

Way back to get depth, we would have to get 4 marks called the x y and then do some math using a .71 divisor to get an accurate depth. But remember depth is really only necessary if you plan on digging and or connecting to a pipe. Most of my inspections don’t require depth or locating since I can clean 99% of the lines I go too. Yes adding a clean out is very important to have an accurate locator and depth.

My 2 most critical locates over the years were for the Phone co. The line wouldn’t clear and I was already in a basement running 95’ out in a totally plugged full line. Relying just on a blind locate without any live video to help. Located what I felt was the problem approx 10’ deep and 18” from the curb on a very busy street. Of course I was leaving to go out of the country for 2 weeks and was not in contact with the contractor until I returned home. Turned out I nailed it. 2-4” plastic electrical energized conduits that penetrated the sewer approx 4 months earlier when doing directional boring from over 100’ away. Contractor was very impressed.

The other project was at Disneyland California adventures. Contractor didn’t sleeve and raise the valve lid for 1 of the fire hydrant shut off valves. Fire chief Inspector would not sign off until the valve was located and a sleeve was installed to the surface. Problem was the pipe was 8’ deep under colored concrete. And of course the pipe was ductile iron. A very difficult dense material to penetrate with a 512hz. Sonde. Shut down the entire fire main, pulled the hydrant and ran my camera to get a visual of the 6” valve. Then the fun came in to get a strong enough signal through the ductile iron pipe so I could mark the location to core drill through the colored concrete and sleeve the valve 8’ below.

Just went back a couple weeks ago. But couldn’t remember from the 21 years prior where that hydrant was located. But I assume they got it as I didn’t see any signs of a large repair. Mickey must be smiling. Both of these jobs were done pre Seektech sr20.

Rick

[Cuda]

Time to move up from my Navi Track Locator.
Was doing some commercial work, deep and through concreate and was tough with my Micro reel sonde. I will be doing more locating and line tracing.
This will only be for mapping, locating and inspecting Drain/Sewer lines

Friday's job had me locating through 8 inch of concrete in a 2-inch line with my micro reel. Had a hard time picking that up.
After that I was using my full size sea snake in a 8 inch line about 8 ft deep with thick asphalt and had trouble until I got away from the asphalt.
My Scout is great I just want something better

Rather stay with Ridgid but who knows. Suggestions?

I like the SR-24 also because it is light and will go up to 65K which handles most line locates. If buying a SR-24 as the main locator you should pick up a PipeHorn or Metrotech 810 (first version only Orange) So that you have the ability to do difficult locates that need 200khz and only it will do. Most times you don't want to bleed over but sometimes you need it like flange pipe with gaskets or no gaskets but the actual flanges are made of cast and the bolts don't let the 65k signal pass so you can't locate. In that example you need 200k so that it jumps over to the next pipe section. And depth under concrete most of the time makes no difference unless there is a lot of bar in it and you are using a high freq. But it is the battery strength or the sonde itself that is what holds you back as almost all manufactures unit will go to 10 feet most of the time except if the angle is to severe. Also I like the newer 3 series of Vivax the Vloc3 Pro or 5000 model. And still to this day the Seektech Q series of transmitter has no competition from anybody as to how much clean signal it puts on a pipe when using induction.

[fixitright]

Thanks Cuda. I was hoping you would chime in. I have a lot to learn.