# Leak detection advice



## tomzudock (12 d ago)

I have a drip irrigation system that I believe has a leak somewhere in plumbing from the valve to the drip irrigation mainlines. My house has a smart water meter where it's easy to see the gallons per minute (gpm) consumed. When this station is on, the smart meter reports around 6.31 gpm (378 gph) but the number of drip lines I have should amount to about 55 gph. I've measured the flow of the drip lines directly by running/filling a bucket and it matches the 55 gph.

My question is, is it OK to cap the plumbing line source so that there's no flow to the drip lines, and then turn on the station to see if there is flow on the smart water meter? Or will that possibly damage the valve or the plumbing. In the picture below I'd be capping the blue connection there. There are two sources like this so I'd cap them both. If I cap it and there's flow, I clearly have a leak in the plumbing.

Thanks.


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