From what I can gather from this thread is that you already have the best leak detector there is.......a pressure gauge.
This will only tell you that you have a leak.....not what kind or the location. It might be an internal leak...i.e....check valve or isolation valve. Or it could be an external leak.
So.....all you have to do is monitor the RATE of pressure. And the only rate that you are interested in...........is a small, slow rate window.
To be able to detect a leak......you must start with a non leaking system. Not sure if you can do it with $50.
You will need an analog pressure sensor, and small processor board and an annunciator.
The strategy is to measure the pressure at a set interval......and measure the difference from the last measurement. This strategy will NOT give you indication of breaks or streams......but will detect drips and leaks.
The first thing to determine is the interval. With all faucets turn off and well pump kicked off......adjust a faucet flow for a toothpick stream. By the way...use a sink faucet, not a drain valve.
Start off with a second of interval. Take a pressure measurement every second for one minute and see if you can see a pressure change. Let's say that you can see a pressure change in 5 sec. with that toothpick flow.
We want to ignore any change greater than that flow. We only want to alarm on a flow that is less than toothpick but greater than zero flow. AND...AND only within TEN seconds. We double the interval to gain resolution of the small change. All no flows and high flows are ignored.
This is only a strategy and I used arbitrary numbers. Your system's capacities will determine the numbers. I hope you get my drift. In the real world you would end up with three sets of numbers. A small set of zero flow numbers.......a small range of alarm flow numbers and a set of large flow ignored numbers. These sets are referenced to the time interval.
The cheapest way to determine a leak is a pressure gauge and a clock.
One can customize and carry this out much farther if you want. One could easily recognize a toilet flush. Or a washing/dish washing machine cycle...or an ice maker cycle. And of course you could calibrate the whole thing.
This will only tell you that you have a leak.....not what kind or the location. It might be an internal leak...i.e....check valve or isolation valve. Or it could be an external leak.
So.....all you have to do is monitor the RATE of pressure. And the only rate that you are interested in...........is a small, slow rate window.
To be able to detect a leak......you must start with a non leaking system. Not sure if you can do it with $50.
You will need an analog pressure sensor, and small processor board and an annunciator.
The strategy is to measure the pressure at a set interval......and measure the difference from the last measurement. This strategy will NOT give you indication of breaks or streams......but will detect drips and leaks.
The first thing to determine is the interval. With all faucets turn off and well pump kicked off......adjust a faucet flow for a toothpick stream. By the way...use a sink faucet, not a drain valve.
Start off with a second of interval. Take a pressure measurement every second for one minute and see if you can see a pressure change. Let's say that you can see a pressure change in 5 sec. with that toothpick flow.
We want to ignore any change greater than that flow. We only want to alarm on a flow that is less than toothpick but greater than zero flow. AND...AND only within TEN seconds. We double the interval to gain resolution of the small change. All no flows and high flows are ignored.
This is only a strategy and I used arbitrary numbers. Your system's capacities will determine the numbers. I hope you get my drift. In the real world you would end up with three sets of numbers. A small set of zero flow numbers.......a small range of alarm flow numbers and a set of large flow ignored numbers. These sets are referenced to the time interval.
The cheapest way to determine a leak is a pressure gauge and a clock.
One can customize and carry this out much farther if you want. One could easily recognize a toilet flush. Or a washing/dish washing machine cycle...or an ice maker cycle. And of course you could calibrate the whole thing.