Crazy Water bill -- FIX yer leaks !!!!!

[Marctrees]

OK, we all know various things can make water bill jump.

In our case.. went from 3k gallons historical usage for $30... to 16k gallons for $90.

In one month jump.

So, I knew we had two old toilets start to seep lately, about same time.

Basically flapper not sealing, but also maybe some valve problem also.

18 yrs old.

But I never dreamed this could make this huge difference.

Anyway, after doing a bunch of logical non schizophrenic step by step drilling down to confirm where the problem is, ALL that's left is the damn toilets !!!

Got all good new parts, and will report back how this ends up.

After Googling, doing the cypherin, 24/7/30 and all, still hard to believe two toilets seem make so much difference... seeing as how they are just lightly seeping.... not fricking leaking like crazy.

So we'll see after valve and flapper replacements.


Stay tuned........... We'll be back........... Marc

 

[Thumper68]

I can see it, we had a drippy faucet that it took me a while to get around to, once it was fixed our water bill went down $15.

On a side note a few years back one of my friends was in the process of moving his family to GA. They needed a place to stay for a month and since it was summer and we are not home much anyway I invited them to stay with us, for 4 weeks the number of people in our house doubled and so did the water, electric and gas bills.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Same thing happened to me a few years ago - my water bill more than doubled from one month to the next, and it ended up being the downstairs toilet flapper valve leaking. I don't use that bathroom very often, and the leak was slow enough that I didn't even notice it until I paid close attention. Even a slow leak can drain a lot of water if it's leaking 24/7.

My day job is designing municipal water treatment plants; now those are places where they don't like leaks because they usually end up being big ones. The other thing that's interesting is how much more water they have to produce in the warmer months of the year, when people start watering their lawns. For some cities the daily production will more than double.

 

[chris142]

A "normal" water bill here is $300/mo.

 

[jd_1138]

A "normal" water bill here is $300/mo.

Ours is about $75 a month which I thought was high.

 

[purplezr2]

Mine is what ever the electric is to pump it into the house. Guess I should fix my two leaky toilets! Guessing they are making my septic work harder.

 

[brownbagg]

my bill is $8.72, one month the meter reader broke the line by stomping on the cover, next month it was $118, then all of sudden, my bill was $0 for twelve months. water people did it on their own

 

[rnscustom]

Got my water bill one time years ago , I had a 900' driveway and the meter was at the street . Not sure the exact numbers but I pumped out a crazy amount of water , my bill was around $10,000.00 . Usually $50.00 , again not sure the exact figure . The town gave me a one time forgiveness , had to replace the entire pipe .

 

[colt zantop]

My bill is about 34 a month...unlimited use...

 

[Ken Greene]

40 bux a quarter for me. Goes up to fifty if the wife waters the veggies a lot in the summer

 

[jim faston]

A lot of meters around here have a small red triangle in them that if spinning indicates a miniscule flow of water. I make it a habit to peek at mine whenever I cut the grass.

 

[D45]

I have a flat rate water bill, regardless how much water I use.........even if I fill my 27,000 gallon pool, flat rate

$72 a month

 

[LXCam]

A "normal" water bill here is $300/mo.

I'd give my left nut to have a water bill under 400. Normally it's closer to 5 this time of year which is why it's gotta be the left one, my righty was donated long ago

 

[gunguy]

Fix the toilets then go watch the meter for awhile. If it moves, you probably have another leak somewhere. Don't assume it's just the toilets.

My house is 30 years old and the line from the meter to the house is that polyethyl-badstuff. You know, the type that breaks about 30 minutes after you leave on vacation. It hadn't broken (yet) but I replaced it recently anyway as a preventive measure since a number had broken in the neighborhood.

Hope in your case it's just the toilets.

Jim

 

[ezover]

I'd give my left nut to have a water bill under 400. Normally it's closer to 5 this time of year which is why it's gotta be the left one, my righty was donated long ago

wow, that is crazy. life would be much different if I had to pop 400 a month water bill.

friend of mine in fl put in a well just for watering his lawn to cut down on the city water bill.

 

[MikeF2316]

A lot of meters around here have a small red triangle in them that if spinning indicates a miniscule flow of water. I make it a habit to peek at mine whenever I cut the grass.

I always get a kick out of things like this that isn't possible in my area. I just can't imagine water pipes mounted outside. Because of freezing, ours is in our basement, but it does have a remote on the end of a wire so the meter reader can read it from outside.

 

[JRC3]

Same applies to a private well. That thing cost money to replace and/or maintain.

Every time that pump cycles it takes life off it. Run time doesn't really wear a pump, the number of total starts do. Leaks causing frequent starts significantly add to that total. Though very low, it also adds to power consumption. Not to mention wear on the pressure tank and pressure switch, and water filters such as softeners and iron filters also causing media wear and more regenerant consumption. (salt, potassium chloride, potassium permanganate, est.)

 

[The Cobbler]

ours is in our basement, but it does have a remote on the end of a wire so the meter reader can read it from outside.

City is in the process of installing rf meters, they drive down the street and record everyone's meter reading at once . they can also tell your consumption by sitting in the car , eg if you've tampered with the meter & are watering your lawn, they can tell .

 

[Git]

Also, check your water pressure!

The street pressure in my area is around 110 lbs and our 13-year-old house has a water pressure regulator that drops it to 60

Recently I was checking out how our water heater is holding up. There is a pressure gauge mounted on one of the inlets and it was showing 110 psi

It boiled down to the regulator needed a rebuild kit - a lot of the rubber parts (o-rings, gaskets, seals, etc) were shot and was allowing the higher pressure to creep past the regulator

Here is what a typical repair kit includes and it was pretty easy fix

 

[Marctrees]

Fix the toilets then go watch the meter for awhile. If it moves, you probably have another leak somewhere. Don't assume it's just the toilets.

My house is 30 years old and the line from the meter to the house is that polyethyl-badstuff. You know, the type that breaks about 30 minutes after you leave on vacation. It hadn't broken (yet) but I replaced it recently anyway as a preventive measure since a number had broken in the neighborhood.

Hope in your case it's just the toilets.

Jim

Ya, at least in the house for SURE, cause when we close valve at house, triangle stops spinning. Marc

 

[Marctrees]

A lot of meters around here have a small red triangle in them that if spinning indicates a miniscule flow of water. I make it a habit to peek at mine whenever I cut the grass.

That is a good idea to check.

Would have avoided my problem. Marc

 

[6768rogues]

We pay less than $3 per 1000 gallons. Our bill is usually around $40 for every 3 months, so cheap they only send a bill 4 times per year.

 

[Ditch]

A "normal" water bill here is $300/mo.

how much are you using?

I'd give my left nut to have a water bill under 400. Normally it's closer to 5 this time of year which is why it's gotta be the left one, my righty was donated long ago

how much are you using?

my bill is $8.72, one month the meter reader broke the line by stomping on the cover, next month it was $118, then all of sudden, my bill was $0 for twelve months. water people did it on their own

I had a similar situation that cost me over 200.00


mine's around 35-40 a month for about 500 cu. ft.

 

[Biomed]

WOW!! Some of you pay more for your water bill than I do for my monthly association payment - and my garbage, water, snow removal and exterior maintenance is all included.

Shortly after I moved in I did an energy audit with the local natural gas utility. We examined the historical natural gas use which was significantly higher before I moved in and the place was vacant. Turns out the hot water heater relief valve was bad and was pumping lots of hot water down the drain. Good thing the place didn't flood.

 

[PoorOwner]

OK, we all know various things can make water bill jump.

In our case.. went from 3k gallons historical usage for $30... to 16k gallons for $90.

In one month jump.

So, I knew we had two old toilets start to seep lately, about same time.

Basically flapper not sealing, but also maybe some valve problem also.

18 yrs old.

But I never dreamed this could make this huge difference.

Anyway, after doing a bunch of logical non schizophrenic step by step drilling down to confirm where the problem is, ALL that's left is the damn toilets !!!

Got all good new parts, and will report back how this ends up.

After Googling, doing the cypherin, 24/7/30 and all, still hard to believe two toilets seem make so much difference... seeing as how they are just lightly seeping.... not fricking leaking like crazy.

So we'll see after valve and flapper replacements.


Stay tuned........... We'll be back........... Marc

I would check your numbers.
Flapper not sealing, it happens, the tank level will go down and the fill valve will start to fill it back up.
I am not sure how you lose 13,000 gallons from that.
Assuming your toilet is 1.6 gallons. (they hold a little more, but 1.6 per flush). to lose 13,000 gallons is around 8125 flushes tankful. that's 270 flush volume full per day of water seeped thru the flapper. How would you not hear it losing 11 tankful of water (17.6 gallon) per hour seeping through the flapper, even divided between 2 toilets, still seem like it would be very noticable.

 

[The Cobbler]

here's why

 

[DCarr2]

One spring/summer I used close to 200K gallons of water...my bill was i think $600?

I called and bitched after the first 200K gallons and the associated bill and they blew me off as a 'lawn waterer'

by the end of summer, that figure had doubled and demanded someone swap out my meter...

water guy comes over, and asked me wtf I am doing with all this water? Yard is dead flowers are dead everything is dead...lol

Turns out the meter was defective.

 

[engineer2]

A few years back we got a High Efficency washing machine. It literally cut out water bill in half. We have daughters, so the washer-dryer are in constant use.

 

[lewis26]

My neighbor had a bill shoot way up. Turns out the line under the slab and sprung a leak.

Insurance company tried to deny fixing it because it was technically not in the dwelling. The agent strongly recommended my neighbor "find" wet cracks in the slab under the carpet. (a bottle of water poured on the crack and a pic taken later, it was covered).

They had to jackhammer out a part of the slab and fix the leak.

 

[tthornto]

My neighbor had a bill shoot way up. Turns out the line under the slab and sprung a leak.

Insurance company tried to deny fixing it because it was technically not in the dwelling. The agent strongly recommended my neighbor "find" wet cracks in the slab under the carpet. (a bottle of water poured on the crack and a pic taken later, it was covered).

They had to jackhammer out a part of the slab and fix the leak.

I had the same problem about a year ago, No sign of any leaks until I got a bill that was triple what it normally is. I was able to figure out where the leak was by first shutting off the water going into the water heater, which stopped the leak (the little triangle on the meter stopped spinning), so i knew it was a hot water line leaking and not a cold line, then I turned the water back on and used a mechanics stethoscope to listen to the pipes. I found the two hot water lines where the sound of running water was the loudest, and cut them both off where they went into the slab and i was able to run a pex line through the wall to bypass it. Total materials cost was about $50 for Pex a couple sharkbite fittings and drywall/tape and mud.

To top it off My water district ended up paying for it. I was able to take a few pictures of the repair and my receipts and type up an explanation and send it in to my water district and about a week later they credited my bill for the cost of the materials for the repair plus the difference of the high water bill and a previous months water bill. I guess they do take conservation (in a drought) seriously and appreciate it when people take the initiative to fix their leaks.

I got very lucky that the leak was easily bypassed, and that my Father and Grandfather taught me the skills to figure out what and where the problem is and be able to fix it myself. My only regret is that the stethoscope trick worked so well I didn't get to use the leak as an excuse to buy a FLIR thermal imaging camera. Since it was a hot water leak I think it would have been fairly easy to spot with one of those.

Here is the stethoscope i used. https://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-63296.html

 

[PoorOwner]

That's the infamous slab leak, that happens when they used soft coil copper in the concrete slab in the 80's and 90's, which are just starting to leak and need to be bypassed (repiped). I believe that practice has been banned. Typically only the hot water leaks due to expansion and contraction.

I had the same problem about a year ago, I was able to figure out where the leak was by first shutting off the water going into the water heater, which stopped the leak (the little triangle on the meter stopped spinning), so i knew it was a hot water line leaking and not a cold line, then I used a mechanics stethoscope to listen to the pipes. I found the two hot water lines where the sound of running water was the loudest, and cut them both off where they went into the slab and i was able to run a pex line through the wall to bypass it. Total materials cost was about $50 for Pex a couple sharkbite fittings and drywall/tape and mud.

To top it off My water district ended up paying for it. I was able to take a few pictures of the repair and my receipts and type up an explanation and send it in to my water district and about a week later they credited my bill for the cost of the materials for the repair plus the difference of the high water bill and a previous months water bill. I guess they do take conservation (in a drought) seriously and appreciate it when people take the initiative to fix their leaks.

I got very lucky that the leak was easily bypassed, and that my Father and Grandfather taught me the skills to figure out what and where the problem is and be able to fix it myself. My only regret is that the stethoscope trick worked so well I didn't get to use the leak as an excuse to buy a FLIR thermal imaging camera. Since it was a hot water leak I think it would have been fairly easy to spot with one of those.

Here is the stethoscope i used. https://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-63296.html

 

[Farmall450]

Mine is what ever the electric is to pump it into the house. Guess I should fix my two leaky toilets! Guessing they are making my septic work harder.

Ding Ding

 

[thool]

We pay less than $3 per 1000 gallons. Our bill is usually around $40 for every 3 months, so cheap they only send a bill 4 times per year.

That is how it is by me. We have huge freshwater Great Lakes nearby. They will last forever, unless states start shipping water out of them!

 

[Falcon67]

>In our case.. went from 3k gallons historical usage for $30... to 16k gallons for $90.

3K here is $110. $7.95/K plus the charge for sewage based on water volume used after the first 1000. Plus base fees, plus trash. So yea, we watch for leaks and fix any ASAP. No dripping faucets or seeping potty flaps around here.

 

[dutchgray]

My last bill was £122 ($160 ish) for 25m3 or about 6,500 gallons, that is 6 months worth for me.
You pay for it coming in, pay for it going out in the sewer, and pay a standing charge for each.
Ours is pumped out of an aquifer under the chalk down, they pull the supply for a large area out of it, some of the local rivers dry up a bit, but there is a lot of water available.

 

[isb cornbinder]

I'd give my left nut to have a water bill under 400. Normally it's closer to 5 this time of year which is why it's gotta be the left one, my righty was donated long ago

Maybe you can qualify for government grant because you might be considered "half nuts". My Dad only had one nut. Look at me I turned out half nuts on Wednesdaze. After Friday, I am off for the weekend.

 

[6768rogues]

That is how it is by me. We have huge freshwater Great Lakes nearby. They will last forever, unless states start shipping water out of them!

I am north of Brockport, but still MCWA.
As long as the people in Niagara Falls keep flushing their toilets we have plenty of water!
We have a good water system. Erie County has a crappy water system, more expensive and few generators to keep water flowing in power outages. I guess their politicians are better at wasting money than ours.