Tuning Ultrasonic Leak detectors for finding air leaks on your gun

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KatoKevin454

KatoKevin454

Member
Feb 18, 2018
1,243
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Texas, United States
With so many posts about guns that have leaks, I thought maybe some of you might be interested in what I use to find leaks, I'm a retired HVAC Service Tech and have lots of tools of the trade leftover, one of them is my Amprobe Ultrasonic leak detector, it helps me find leaks FAST, it works by picking up the sound of friction being created by anything making friction, such as an eye blink, I can hear an eye blink at 20 feet away or fingers rubbing together, air passing through a leaking o-ring or a seal can be picked up quickly, these Ultrasonic leak detectors use to be extremely expensive, but they have become much cheaper now and affordable, check out Amazon, they have quite a few good ones, Amprobe I know is good and Accutek is good, there are some really cheap ones I have no Idea how good they are, they might be fairly good? but here's a link to Ultrasonic leak detectors, 

Note: there might be other leak detectors on this listing, Halide/Halogen Sniffer type leak detectors WILL NOT work on Airguns,. ONLY ULTRASONIC leak detectors

Ultrasonic Leak detectors are extremely sensitive to friction noise, they can pick up back ground noise from Fluorescent lights, electronic Bug/Rodent deterrents, running water, motors, gears, walking or anything that can create friction....... they don't pick up sound......



https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ultrasonic+leak+detector&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
 
Hvac guy hear as well I hear the ultra sonic detectors work good but have to buy a decent one.
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the Amprobe and the Accutrak are the best ones for HVAC, I've owned both, the Accutrak is more durable than the Amprobe, but the Amprobe has more adjustability, I've found leaks that no Halogen sniffer would ever pick up, Tiny leaks like a small bubble popping every 30 seconds and large leaks sound like a continuous blast, training your ear to hear it helps, if you're going to use it for work, invest into a good one, the cheap one's might be fine for occasional use,

Note: Ultrasonic's pick up Fluorescent light ballasts and those electronic bug/mouse repeller's, also running water can affect them. so you want to make sure those aren't being used and don't have people or animals near, it can pick up walking....
 
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have you seen the new gauges, I own a JB electronic Digital gauge manifold that did all refrigerants, and it's obsolete now, the new ones are digital with remote sensing for indoor wet bulb temp and outdoor dry bulb temp and super heat, sub cooling readings and a whole lot more, I think when I spoke to a salesman for Fieldpiece, he took my Ideas and got them to put it in to use.
 
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Too bad you can't put a dye in the compressed air and use a black light to visually see the leak like air conditioning leak dye that the Geiger counter sounding pointer wand is used.

How's about filling the gun with helium and use a helium leak detector? Certainly it should leak out much quicker using helium.
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I have always wondered- If you could trap and pressurize a fart in an air cylinder, would it combust? 🤔
 
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Too bad you can't put a dye in the compressed air and use a black light to visually see the leak like air conditioning leak dye that the Geiger counter sounding pointer wand is used.

How's about filling the gun with helium and use a helium leak detector? Certainly it should leak out much quicker using helium.
Click to expand...

I have always wondered- If you could trap and pressurize a fart in an air cylinder, would it combust?
1f914.svg
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Didn’t South Park have an episode that covered that?
 
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I used an electronic leak detector when I was a diesel mechanic for finding air leaks on transit buses. It werqed quite well but the leaks were quite a bit larger than some of the tiny leaks we are trying to find on our airguns. I would like to hear from someone that has used one of these to find a leak that takes days to lower the pressure in a gun. So if you try one be sure to get back to us.
 
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HVACR tech here as well. I recently bought a Bacharach Tru Point detector. I don't have any leaks in my airguns right now, but I will definitely give this a try if I ever do. If anyone wants me to locate a leak for them, you can send your air rifle to me. I'm sure I won't have it more than a week or two. Don't forget to tell me what pellets it likes, too.

James
 
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Too bad you can't put a dye in the compressed air and use a black light to visually see the leak like air conditioning leak dye that the Geiger counter sounding pointer wand is used.

How's about filling the gun with helium and use a helium leak detector? Certainly it should leak out much quicker using helium.
Click to expand...

I have always wondered- If you could trap and pressurize a fart in an air cylinder, would it combust?
1f914.svg
Click to expand...

If you can bottle your fart and compress it use to fill up your gun...

https://youtu.be/hbMm0yim26Q


 
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An Ultrasonic leak detector can pick up leaks so small that most other leak detectors won't even register, with a trained ear, you can hear the tiniest blip from a leak, I've found leaks in air conditioning systems that would take years to get low and no one else could find them, UV lights with dye, sniffers, soap bubbles, tissue paper, (yes, tissue paper, eastern block technicians), plus the Ultra sonic is quick, no real disassembly except for the stock to find the leak, I do use soap bubbles to do a final zeroing in if needed or if the leak is too big for the ultrasonic to pin point the exact spot, so don't go throwing out your soap bubbles..... 

Ultrasonic leak detectors just make finding a Leak faster and easier especially the really small ones. and just so you know the really small leaks will sound like a bubble popping or a Blip......

here's mine

Ultrasonic leak detector.1605720206.jpg

 
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Too bad you can't put a dye in the compressed air and use a black light to visually see the leak like air conditioning leak dye that the Geiger counter sounding pointer wand is used.

How's about filling the gun with helium and use a helium leak detector? Certainly it should leak out much quicker using helium.
Click to expand...

I have always wondered- If you could trap and pressurize a fart in an air cylinder, would it combust?
1f914.svg
Click to expand...

If you can bottle your fart and compress it use to fill up your gun...



https://youtu.be/hbMm0yim26Q



Click to expand...

https://youtu.be/r-YjmXt15sg
 
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Kato, Many thanks for educating me on Ultrasonic Leak Detectors. Not long ago a friend sent me his Impact to see if I could solve a super slow air leak that was driving him crazy...it was the top o-ring on the regulator body, and the leak was so slow that it would only make a small bubble every minute or so. I put some soapy water on that spot a couple times and missed it because I would look at it for awhile and no bubbles showed so I thought it must be somewhere else. It drove me nuts too until I finally figured it out. 😵

One of these Ultrasonic Leak Detectors would have picked that up right away! 
 
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HVACR tech here as well. I recently bought a Bacharach Tru Point detector. I don't have any leaks in my airguns right now, but I will definitely give this a try if I ever do. If anyone wants me to locate a leak for them, you can send your air rifle to me. I'm sure I won't have it more than a week or two. Don't forget to tell me what pellets it likes, too.

James
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Nicely brought up my friend, be sure to prioritize the list by the one you haven't shot yet... ;)
 
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