212
g/plumbing • Posted by u/backflow_ben •

Annual backflow test season — my checklist after 900-odd tests Discussion

Testing season is on and every year I watch newer testers make the same handful of mistakes. Here is what my process looks like now.

Before you touch the device

  • Photograph the tag and the nameplate first. Every time. Wrong serial on a report is a failed submittal and a return trip.
  • Note the installation orientation. A RPZ installed vertically that is only listed horizontal fails on install, not on test, and you want that in your notes before you start.
  • Check for a downstream shutoff. No shutoff means no test, and finding that out after you have set up your gauge is a wasted forty minutes.

Setup

  • Bleed every hose. Air in a test hose reads as a passing differential on a device that should fail.
  • Zero the gauge at the working position, not on the tailgate.
  • If it is a five-valve gauge, know which of your hoses is high side by color and never rely on memory.

During

  • Let the readings settle. A relief valve that is slowly weeping looks stable for the first ten seconds.
  • Record what you saw, not what you expected. If number two check reads 1.2 PSID, write 1.2, not "pass."

After

  • Return the shutoffs to their original position and verify — leaving a building's water off is the fastest way to become memorable for the wrong reason.
  • File same day. Every jurisdiction I work in has a deadline and none of them are generous about it.

What is on yours that is not on mine?

💬 5 replies

Log in or sign up to leave a reply.

u/medgas_marcus •

Photographing the tag first is the single highest-value habit on that list and it applies far beyond backflow. Serial number transcription errors are the most common reason a submittal comes back on anything I do.

I would add: photograph the installed condition too, wide shot. If the device is in a pit full of water or buried behind ductwork, you want that image the day somebody asks why the fee was what it was.

68
u/admin_jake ADMIN •

Sidebar-pinning this one. Checklists that come out of a thousand repetitions are the most valuable thing this board produces and they are exactly what a new tester cannot find anywhere else.

52
u/drain_dave •

Adding one: check the gauge calibration date before the first test of the season, not when a report gets rejected in July. Mine is annual and I have absolutely shown up to a municipal job with an expired cert once.

44
u/backflow_ben OP •

Good catch, that belongs at the very top. Calibration lapse invalidates every test you did after the date, retroactively. It is the one mistake that is not a return trip, it is a season of return trips.

29
u/pex_pioneer •

"Record what you saw, not what you expected" is doing a lot of work in that post. I have caught myself writing down the number I was about to read. Not proud of it, but I suspect I am not alone.

37