In medicine if you want to know about the flow of food through the intestinal tract you feed the patient a Barium Meal and X-ray them.
Is there any way to achieve a similar sort of result in domestic pipework?
I have a blockage in some drains and I have access to most of the pipework, but I can't immediately tell WHERE the blockage is.
It would be lovely if I could get out by trusty X-Ray scanner app on my iPhone and just look inside the pipes … but that doesn't exist.
Is there any way that I can (on a DIY budget) detect / trace the flow of water from the plug hole to the main sewer entrance.
Majority of the pipes in question are plastic, if that's relevant.
Best Answer
The following two techniques are perhaps not the best methods, but they're basically free, and don't require any tools. Pinpointing the blockage might not be realistic, and practice may be helpful. Using both techniqes might help get you within a foot of the obstruction.
If the pipe is partially blocked (such that it will drain after a couple hours) the best no-tool method to use is your forearm. After the drain has... drained, fill the partially-blocked pipe with hot water, and feel the pipe with your forearm (which is pretty sensitive to temperature). An infrared camera would be a cool tool for this, or a temperature gun might be just as good, but they aren't commonly owned tools, and your forearm will probably work.
If the pipe is really blocked (and full of water such that adding hot water would not work), then you might be able to tap on it with a screw driver and hear the empty versus dense/full sound. The sound of a full pipe is a little unusual, and the difference between full and empty is subtle, but it's still possible to hear.