Got lucky with underground water leak

[earl84]

We got our water bill the other day and it was over 6,000 gallons, way high for just my wife and I, figured something isnt right. Called the water company and they compared it with last years at the same time. Last year it was only 4,000 gallons, which still seems too high. Anyway, the lady I chatted with was very helpful. Asked about toilets leaking, and then as an afterthought she asked if we had any yard hydrants. We have 2, one inline before the house feed, one after the house feed. Verified with a pressure gauge. She said to go listen at the hydrant and you can usually hear if there is water flowing. There was noise at the one that is after the house feed. I checked the water meter at the county road, and there was definitely water flowing with everything shut off. Luckily, in the crawlspace is a shutoff valve going to that one. I shut it off, went to the hydrant, and no more noise. Checked at the water meter on the county road, and there was no more flow. Problem solved without digging it up, and since we don't ever use that hydrant, we probably never will dig it up and/or repair it.

I wonder how long it has had a leak. We just had a cold snap (like the rest of the country) and it must have gotten worse. Should be interesting to see future water usage. Big bill and even bigger hassle avoided.

 

[hobie18]

You have probably been paying a lot over the years. Glad you got it fixed.
We have a similar problem.
After the city repiped, our bill and usage grew. Neighbors did not. Hmm. And they have a pool.

 

[csp]

We are currently in the same boat. We're on a well so our pressure drops with nothing in the house using water. We couldn't tell where it was until the end of last week when the well pump went from cycling every 30 minutes to every 3.5 minutes.

I "think" it's at a certain hydrant, but I'm not 100% sure and the nitwits who did the outside lines didn't seem to install any curb stops that I can find to shut any of the branches off, so we have to shut down everything until it's repaired. We have five hydrants, our barn and an accessory dwelling unit that all feed off of the same well.

One hydrant was leaking when we moved in and it was an easy one to find. The pasture grass was green in one area only.

I'll have a mini excavator here tomorrow to dig up where I think the leak is. Should be fun as there's about 10" of frost right now. If that's not my leak point I'm going to dig up around the well casing and just disconnect the entire line that's not the house and cap it for a warmer month to find the leak.

 

[no704]

Tempe AZ here. They have a program where they will send a text if you go over normal amounts. Always get one after laundry day.

 

[dcg9381]

We're on "rain water collection" so water use is a huge deal here.
I use "bluebot" on our "water main" to monitor consumption. It's worked great so far.

It's been a learning experience. I've xeriscaped the front yard and all the plants are on direct feed limited water use. If it needs a "lot" of water, we're not doing it.

One variable is human. Biggest user of water in our household is a traditional washing machine which uses 30-40 gallons per cycle. More humans = more laundry.

Our water use is 3000-4000 gallons per month... That's our normal.

 

[walta]

Consider hanging a tag on the valve that says hydrant has a leak.

Walta