Could one of these tools help map water pipe routes and trace a leak, or are they only going to be useful for air and gas leaks?
Could one of these tools help map water pipe routes and trace a leak, or are they only going to be useful for air and gas leaks?
You should definitely try a thermal camera. Any moisture will create small temperature differences which are easily picked up by a thermal camera.
A leak only turns invisible if the water has the exact same temperature as the wall and there is no meaningful evaporation happening (as that cools the affected area).
Of course don't let me stop you from actively probing your all using RF. Though also there you might have good chances with IR, since wet $stuff should behave differently than dry $stuff ;-)
There is a man call leak detective, who hunts for leaks in the UK. one tool he has is shutting off the water and filling the pipes with gas and using either sound or gas detector to pin down leaks.
A lot of the time he just listens though.
Our ears and eyes are very high bandwidth sensors.