Modrob
Member
My sister and her 16-year-old daughter live in a duplex (separate water meters, my niece and her daughter live next door and have no water bill issues) and have in the last 3-4 months received outrageous water bills. (WV American) They’ve been there over two years, and their usual usage has been around 2700 gallons a month.
This past July they filled a small stand-alone pool and had to add a little every-so-often thru Sept. But those bills were as expected—about 7800 gal for two months. Pool came down in September, but in October billing went to near 10,800 gal., Nov. 8,300 gal., and this month of December a whopping 13,300 gal. Her bill this month said their daily usage was “459 gallons”! (Just the two of them and they are not extravagant at all in their water use)
She received a letter on Dec. 22, advising of their “responsibility to give all information to help manage water use”, and that they “recently saw an increase in water use, which surpassed 200% and $200 when compared to the prior month. We also identified a similar disparity when compared to the prior year’s use for this property. We have verified the meter reading to confirm accuracy…”
A technician came out and gave a look, and said that his tablet showed time periods when no water moved, and other periods when it ran. Seemed to coincide with no activity during the times they were at work and school. He suggested the toilet—we did the water dye test and no leaking occurred. All sinks, faucets, pipes, etc. were fine too. No signs of water anywhere inside or outside. Yesterday I went and pulled the cover off the meter and found the Badger Model 25 with the little red spin indicator. (It did not budge the whole time I was there and I even had them turn on some water so I could verify.
Water company insists there is a leak somewhere but nothing can be found…
The intermittent thing the tech spoke of—I can that for the right reasons. But nothing has changed here in their normal living. And it’s a small place with one small bath, kitchen, and washer. Outside spigot is fine—no leaks around it nor under the house. AND for a leak that big, I would think that spinner indicator would be spinning constantly. I did take a pic of the meter reading while there, so I’ll get another one in a day or two and look at that.
Over 500 dollars for two months water bills!
Can anyone suggest what else I might look into before I get on the phone and lose my mind?
Thanks much!
This past July they filled a small stand-alone pool and had to add a little every-so-often thru Sept. But those bills were as expected—about 7800 gal for two months. Pool came down in September, but in October billing went to near 10,800 gal., Nov. 8,300 gal., and this month of December a whopping 13,300 gal. Her bill this month said their daily usage was “459 gallons”! (Just the two of them and they are not extravagant at all in their water use)
She received a letter on Dec. 22, advising of their “responsibility to give all information to help manage water use”, and that they “recently saw an increase in water use, which surpassed 200% and $200 when compared to the prior month. We also identified a similar disparity when compared to the prior year’s use for this property. We have verified the meter reading to confirm accuracy…”
A technician came out and gave a look, and said that his tablet showed time periods when no water moved, and other periods when it ran. Seemed to coincide with no activity during the times they were at work and school. He suggested the toilet—we did the water dye test and no leaking occurred. All sinks, faucets, pipes, etc. were fine too. No signs of water anywhere inside or outside. Yesterday I went and pulled the cover off the meter and found the Badger Model 25 with the little red spin indicator. (It did not budge the whole time I was there and I even had them turn on some water so I could verify.
Water company insists there is a leak somewhere but nothing can be found…
The intermittent thing the tech spoke of—I can that for the right reasons. But nothing has changed here in their normal living. And it’s a small place with one small bath, kitchen, and washer. Outside spigot is fine—no leaks around it nor under the house. AND for a leak that big, I would think that spinner indicator would be spinning constantly. I did take a pic of the meter reading while there, so I’ll get another one in a day or two and look at that.
Over 500 dollars for two months water bills!
Can anyone suggest what else I might look into before I get on the phone and lose my mind?
Thanks much!
