Hydrogen passes through concrete, tile, asphalt, and even 10+ feet of dirt. With dense surfaces, raise your tracer gas pressure to 30+ psi, place the rubber cone of the sensor flat against the floor, and wait a few seconds for the reading to climb before moving it to another spot. Less gas reaches the surface through a slab, but the Sniffer is sensitive enough to pick it up. If you want absolute certainty, drill a small pilot hole at the suspected spot and the reading will spike — confirming the leak before you break ground.

Customers have detected leaks over 14ft deep. The tracer gas is a blend of 5% hydrogen and 95% nitrogen. Due to the very small size of hydrogen molecules, they can penetrate through thick and dense materials. This makes successful detection possible even through over 10 feet of soil and thick concrete slabs. For practical purposes, if you suspect a leak to be very deep, set your tracer gas pressure to 30+ psi ensure as much gas as possible makes its way to the surface. Even if a tiny amount of hydrogen makes it up, the Sniffer will be able to read it.

Make sure to watch our demo videos ON THIS PAGE for the full breakdown!

Tracer Gas is a pre-made blend of Hydrogen (5%) and Nitrogen (95%). No license, no training, no special permits needed to purchase the gas. The gas is non-toxic, non-flammable, and environmentally safe. It's actually just the same stuff that's already in the air. The Nitrogen in the gas is just a neutral base. The Hydrogen is just a slightly higher concentration than what's in the air. Sniffer⁴³⁰ is a super sensitive hydrogen sensor that will measure the concentration of hydrogen wherever you place it.

Tracer Gas is injected into the system that is suspected of leaking, using a pressure cylinder and a regulator. The gas escapes the system through the leak and is identified by a sensitive hydrogen sensor in Sniffer⁴³⁰. The detection process is somewhat similar to using a metal detector; the operator moves it side to side, close to the ground, and watches the display to identify the point with the highest concentration of gas, indicating the location of the leak. It really is that simple.

The tracer gas can be purchased at welding or gas supply stores. It's commonly stocked, inexpensive, and you'll likely have a supplier within 20 minutes of you. Tracer Gas is a commercial blend of 5% hydrogen and 95% nitrogen, sometimes called "forming gas." We don't sell the gas, you must find this locally as you will need to purchase refills.

We put together a helpful article with recommendations for purchasing Tracer Gas and finding a local supplier. Click Here to check it out!

The amount of gas required depends on the size of the leaking system. To introduce the tracer gas into the system, it is only necessary to pressurize it slightly above atmospheric pressure, so 20-25 psi is usually sufficient. Even if the system contains water or other fluids, the tracer gas can be introduced; it will bubble through the liquid and find its way to the leak, where it can be detected by the sensitive sensor. We put together a helpful article to help you calculate Tracer Gas usage. Click Here to check it out!

There are three main leak detection methods: Acoustic, which relies on sensitive hearing of the leak; Thermal, which tracks the temperature difference around the leak; and the Tracer Gas method. Among these, the tracer gas leak detection method is the most accurate, responsive, and reliable.

The Acoustic Method is probably the most common "old school" way of finding leaks. It is used for in house and garden water leak detection and big water lines, also pool leak detection.

- It can be a complicated process.

- It requires more experience (You need to know if the noise you hear is really a leak).

- You can only detect leaks that are producing hissing sound (i.e. very small leaks, very big leaks).

- You may need to filter out different acoustic noises to hear the leak.

- It's much more difficult to know the exact position of a leak.

- Less accurate because sound travels differently in various media, whether soft or hard.

The Thermal Method uses thermal cameras to find a difference in temperature which can identify a leak's approximate location.

- It's not always reliable because a leak does not always result in a noticeable temperature difference.

- It is not applicable for underground or pool leaks.

- It shows you position of water in the structure but thats not necessarily where the leak is.

- You need to have eye contact with the surface. If a leak is behind an object you will not see it.

- If water from the leak is not touching the surface you may not even notice it.

The Tracer Gas Method detects the actual gas escaping from the leak and can successfully detect leaks even through 10 feet of soil or through a thick layer of concrete. You inject tracer gas into the water pipe, then you walk along the pipes measuring gas readings. Once you know the general area, you play hot/cold until you find the leak.

- Tracer Gas can be bought locally,

- It's non toxic and safe, can be injected into water lines,

- You don’t need a license to carry this gas.

- You can only apply tracer gas in smaller diameter lines. Larger pipes need larger volume of gas. (Large city lines it its impractical.)

- Tracer gas may not go through different kinds of sealed materials. You may need to make small drill holes to let gas through, although this is not very common.

- If you test a pipe in a big empty space like a wall where the gas fills the whole space, you will not be able to locate the leak. However, this is acoustic and thermal devices also have this same issue.

- You can find extremely small leaks.

- You don’t need to have eye contact with the source of the leak.

- You detect the exact source of the leak, not just general water like with thermal devices.

All of them. Copper, PVC, galvanized, polyethylene, cast iron — doesn't matter. Given that the detection involves tracer gas, it can be injected into any system. Examples include hot and cold water systems, steam systems, propane or butane systems, oil and fuel systems, and more. Because the gas is non-toxic, you do not need to empty water lines before detection. The Sniffer doesn't care what the pipe is made of. As long as the line is pressurized with tracer gas and the gas can escape through the leak, the Sniffer will pinpoint it.

Plastic has no pores, so hydrogen can't pass through it. This is the one situation where using the Sniffer⁴³⁰ alone has limits. The workaround: use an acoustic device (like our Lixener30) to narrow the leak down to a 4 foot circle, drill 2–3 pilot holes around the edges of the suspected area to pierce the liner, then take readings at each hole with the Sniffer. The hole with the highest ppm puts you on the leak. In this way, you've narrowed down a 4 foot radius to a 1 foot hole.

Sleeved pipes are tough for any detector — acoustic or tracer gas — because gas (or sound) can travel down the sleeve far from point of the actual leak. Honest answer: this is the trickiest scenario in our industry, there isn't any great options. The Sniffer⁴³⁰ will still help you isolate which run of sleeve is leaking, but expect to do additional confirmation work.

Easy. Wall cavities fill with gas and give you a wider hot spot, which tells you which wall the leak is behind. From there, shut off the gas for 10–15 minutes to let it dissipate, then turn it back on at a very low pressure (2–3 psi). Place the rubber cone directly on the wall and the Sniffer will pinpoint the exact spot.

Nope. No calibration, no filter changes, no replacement parts to swap out, no annual service plan. The Sniffer is built around a single, extremely sensitive hydrogen sensor — it doesn't drift, it doesn't need to be re-zeroed, and it works the same on day 1,000 as it did on day 1. It’s important to keep the equipment clean and don't dump it in water, as you would with any electronic tool. But other than that, just run it. We've had customers send units back after years of daily use — covered in dust, scratched up, paint worn off the handle — and once cleaned, they ran like new.

Jacob's-MC is based in Lithuania. Our distribution and service center for the western hemisphere is in Florida, USA — staffed by real people who you can call right now and talk to. When you call for support, you're talking to someone who knows the product inside out. Not a script. Not a ticket queue.

We have a 1 year manufacturers warranty against any defects. If the unit does not work exactly like we’re saying it does, just give us a call. Our team is always available. 90% of the time when people call in, it’s just a question about how to use the device properly which we can solve over the phone. But if you ever need to send it in for service, you can ship it into our service center in Florida. The day it arrives here we’ll fix it and it will ship out that same day, to get you back in business right away.  

If you somehow damaged the unit after the warranty period, it’s the exact same process. Just call us, if we can’t solve it over the phone, you can ship it in. It’s like going to the mechanic, we’ll just replace whatever parts need to be fixed and you’ll only be charged for those parts.

Shipping and handling begins as soon as your payment is cleared. Orders will be shipped in within 24 hours on business days. In the rare case that we are out of inventory, you will be notified right away with your soonest possible shipping times and updated accordingly.

Yes. We offer financing through Affirm and Klarna right here on our website. Once you add the product to cart and go to the checkout page, you will see the different payment and financing options. As of now, Affirm includes 0% interest for the first 6 months on qualifying buyers — so you can pay off the Sniffer from the new jobs it will get you, without any added cost.