I am trying to install a scaleblaster since my water is so hard my swamp cooler pads continuously are covered with calcium deposits. The water meter is behind the fence in the backyard at the corner I located the line 5 ft from the meter on the inside of the fence 18in deep. The pipe runs parallel with the fence line under a shed and under a driveway. On this side of the house there is a bathroom and a hose bib on the other side of the house is the kitchen and the water heater. The pipe is Galvanized running from the meter. I cannot connect the scaleblaster to galvanized pipe I want to try and hook it up so that it will cover the swamp cooler pipe as well as the rest of the house. So I'm looking for the pipe coming into the house which I can't seem to find. We don't have a shut off, we don't have a crawl space. I called bluestake 811 they won't come out into the property because it's private so I'm at a loss as to where to find the pipe. The house was built in 1978 so could it be galvanized throughout the house I was told. The water heater has copper pipe running to it and a tankless water heater was put in and that has copper pipe running to it. Can I use a Zircon pipe locator and check the walls? or do I need to dig holes in the backyard next to the house? Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you very much

 

Call around to rental stores and see if any of them rent inductive pipe/cable locators. They allow you to trace the line by placing a transmitter directly over a known location on the line.

 

Ultimately it needs to get to the hot water heater. Check in that area.
A few pictures of the area may help us help you locate it.

How-to-insert-pictures.

 

Thanks no one in the area rents that

 

If you have a city light / water department maybe you could sweet talk them into helping you locate it, if there are no rentals available. They have them.

Also, I dont understand 811 not coming out because its private. What's private? Your neighborhood? In that case maybe some neighborhood hoa representative or manager of some type has to be the one to make the call to 811 for you and request them to come locate.

 

My Dad taught me that you can take two wire coat hangers, straighten them out and bend the wire about a third of the way up. Drape them over each index finger holding them loosely so that the long ends are pointed straight out. Keep your hands at the same height about chest high. Walk slowly perpendicular to where your main may be. When you get close to the pipe the hangers will start to close in on themselves. When they completely close they are on top of the pipe. Sounds crazy but it works! They locate telephone, sewer , pvc,

 

Link on dowsing. https://youtu.be/_VAasVXtCOI
Some people still swear by it, wanting to believe it works.

 

Never dowsed for water. I have used them too many times to find pipe.

 

Thanks for the replies. 811 came out and marked an offset at the street. That's all they would do. I tried the coat handers to no avail. I bought a craftsman wall pipe locator but it acts like every wall has pipe. A friend loaned me a dowsing rod. I am going to try that today. Thanks for the help. The search goes on

 

That scaleblaster might not work on swamp cooler pads. The claims seem to be acoustic-ultrasound induction that breaks up lime scale inside pipes.
To me, that would SEEM to have no effect on swam cooler pads, since they are not inside the pipes, AND thi is not removing calcium.

Sounds like you can simply connect the unit to the copper pipe associated with the hot water heater.

 

My understanding (certainly could be wrong) is that if you don’t have a basement or crawlspace there’s a chance the shutoff would be under the kitchen sink or near the water heater. And unless there are some obstructions the pipe would be in a straight line from the water meter to the shutoff. In other words- there are no unnecessary turns.

But I guess you know what’s under your kitchen sink better than anyone.

Was the tankless added to supplement the previous water heater? I don’t know if that’s ever done (or makes sense) but I was thinking that there may have been a plumbing change such that there are a few ball valves around the water heater(s) not just one , and it might not be obvious but one of those might actually be a shutoff for the whole house.

Just a WAG! Good luck!

 

It's a privately owned line. We have a similar law here with Missouri DIG-RITE. Public utilities belong to DIG-RITE and it's free to have them come out and locate utility owned lines, but they do not locate privately owned water, sewer, natural gas, electric or any other privately owned line of any kind. I remember a project many years ago where a conduit had to be installed in a subdivision from a pad mounted transformer to a home for a 600 amp service. The excavator found that cable TV companies do not belong to DIG-Rite as they aren't classed as utilities. I don't know who paid for that repair, that's why it's best to sub out that kind of work.


Many many many years ago I had a plumber tell me this and I told him he was full of it. Well, he showed me that it works, cost me a lunch. He also said that is how they find water lines in a subdivision he frequently worked in. By the way, they called it "witching". I later found that brazing rods work a little better than just old coat hangers.

 

When it comes to dousing or witching, I think you are always going to have 2 camps. Those who think it's pure bull$#!#, and those who swear it works. To each his own.