mwmosser
New Member
Hello all -
I have a small leak somewhere, and it's making me crazy. Our water meter is showing that about 6-7 gallons of water are flowing out every hour, even with no taps open anywhere. I have turned off the main valve to the house and the meter leak detecting triangle stops spinning, so I know there is an issue.
Here's what I have done so far:
- replaced one flapper on toilet after dye test. No change in meter spinning.
- turned off in-house valves (under all sinks and washing machine). No change in meter spinning.
- turned off valves to all toilets. No change in meter spinning.
6-7 gallons per hour is more than 1.5 cups of water flowing out every minute. You'd think that I'd hear that in the pipes, or in some fixture leaking, but there is no sound anywhere in the house. This is leading me to suspect that I have a leak outside in a sprinkler line, or (worst case) in the slab. But I don't see any weeping from the slab anywhere, and I don't see any obvious wet spots on the lawn. The sprinklers are also turned off, and the sprinkler control valves have been turned off (knife valves). Still the water meter spins.
This is a small leak, but Austin has a tiered system for water billing and this leak is putting me into a higher tier. We're a small family of three and generally pretty efficient in our water use - under 100 gallons/day. This leak is putting us into the 200+ gallon/day bracket and it's really bothersome. I hate wasting water, and even though it's only about $25 extra a month, I don't like literally pouring money down the drain either.
Any advice? I don't want to spend $1000 on a sonar leak detection service quite yet, but being unable to find the leak myself is very vexing.
thanks -
Michael M
I have a small leak somewhere, and it's making me crazy. Our water meter is showing that about 6-7 gallons of water are flowing out every hour, even with no taps open anywhere. I have turned off the main valve to the house and the meter leak detecting triangle stops spinning, so I know there is an issue.
Here's what I have done so far:
- replaced one flapper on toilet after dye test. No change in meter spinning.
- turned off in-house valves (under all sinks and washing machine). No change in meter spinning.
- turned off valves to all toilets. No change in meter spinning.
6-7 gallons per hour is more than 1.5 cups of water flowing out every minute. You'd think that I'd hear that in the pipes, or in some fixture leaking, but there is no sound anywhere in the house. This is leading me to suspect that I have a leak outside in a sprinkler line, or (worst case) in the slab. But I don't see any weeping from the slab anywhere, and I don't see any obvious wet spots on the lawn. The sprinklers are also turned off, and the sprinkler control valves have been turned off (knife valves). Still the water meter spins.
This is a small leak, but Austin has a tiered system for water billing and this leak is putting me into a higher tier. We're a small family of three and generally pretty efficient in our water use - under 100 gallons/day. This leak is putting us into the 200+ gallon/day bracket and it's really bothersome. I hate wasting water, and even though it's only about $25 extra a month, I don't like literally pouring money down the drain either.
Any advice? I don't want to spend $1000 on a sonar leak detection service quite yet, but being unable to find the leak myself is very vexing.
thanks -
Michael M