Underground Locaters

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ken44

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Austin, TX
I am trying to become educated on Underground Locaters, I have began looking at various types and price ranges and they are wide in cost and I want to make sure I get the right one for the job which happens to be a large cemetary with many irrigation lines but also has electrical services running to pond pumps and such. One of the main things that I am trying to understand is why is there a difference between the unenergized and energized. Would an underground locator be considered unenergized because of feedback or noise from energized lines? I have seen good reviews on an Amprobe AT-5000 but it is for unenergized lines.
 
I am not the resident expert on locators. The older one we use for cable locates will work on energized lines via a clamp that induces a signal onto the lines we are looking for, or disconnect power and put the signal directly onto the wires in question. The second method is much better for longer distances. We can find phone lines, metallic gas lines, water lines and cable. We let the utilities find and confirm their own, but have been known to pre plan with our own locates. We can figure rough depths but not near like Ditch Witch and other high end units. I would think depth would be nice to know.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I will continue with my investigation and give the Vivax people a call. I hope you both have a great weekend :)
 
Are the irrigation lines plastic? I also use the vivax which also indicates depth. To trace a poly well line I had to stick a metal fish tape down the line and clamp the signal to it.
 
I have a Tempo Tracker II model 501 that works the best of any I have tried, especially for the price. It works on de-energized circuits. I just used it today to find a hidden j-box for a pylon sign. I've put it up against the very expensive professional models, and had the same results.
 
hillbilly1 said:
I have a Tempo Tracker II model 501 that works the best of any I have tried, especially for the price. It works on de-energized circuits. I just used it today to find a hidden j-box for a pylon sign. I've put it up against the very expensive professional models, and had the same results.
Click to expand...

Change the colors, put a different label on it, add 20 years or so of abuse, and you have mine.
 
ken44 said:
I am trying to become educated on Underground Locaters, I have began looking at various types and price ranges and they are wide in cost and I want to make sure I get the right one for the job which happens to be a large cemetary with many irrigation lines but also has electrical services running to pond pumps and such. One of the main things that I am trying to understand is why is there a difference between the unenergized and energized. Would an underground locator be considered unenergized because of feedback or noise from energized lines? I have seen good reviews on an Amprobe AT-5000 but it is for unenergized lines.
Click to expand...

That locator is for both energized and unenergized lines. One of the neat features about locators of those types is the ability to locate by 60 Hz only. The depth feature is also nice, but I have seen it be off by as much as a foot. That being said, I still like a pipehorn.
 
If you use one in the mode where you can clamp an energized line you must remember it will send signal down all lines that have continuity to the line you clamped. Disconnecting and isolating a line where there is congestion of several lines in a relatively small area will put signal only on the line you are looking for instead of all lines in the area. Can be handy sometimes.

The ability to just detect and locate a 60 Hz frequency is also convenient if you know there is only one line in the area to detect.
 
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