High water usage?

[h]

The town keeps saying they're going to soften the water from the reservoir "next year", but it hasn't happened yet and I've been here for 25 years.

[Caesar Romano]

On Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:37:54 -0600, "Pete C." wrote Re Re: High water usage?:

Interesting water useage statistics here:

[Davej]

Really? A microphone? I checked the meter today (at the curb) with the house main shut off and it seems I have an outdoor leak of about 4 gallons per hour.

[Doug Brown]

Actually it is more like a mechanics stethoscope than a microphone.

[hallerb]

replace outdoor line with PEX immediately

[mkirsch1]

The leak has to be downstream of the water meter in order for them to charge you.

Where is your water meter? Mine is in the basement and all the house plumbing attaches to it. The meter has a little wheel that spins like crazy when any water is being used.

Even if the meter is outdoors, there should only be a short pipe where it goes back into the ground and then through the wall into your basement. The leak would have to be there if it's not in your basement.

It will be very obvious if you look at the water meter while you're not using any water, and the little wheel is spinning. Something is using water if the little wheel is spinning.

Do you have underground pipes running to another building or an outdoor faucet? Turn off the shutoff valves to any outdoor faucets to eliminate those as possible leaks.

Plumbing is not rocket science.

[Davej]

This is out in the suburbs where the meter is out in a hole near the curb. The buried 3/4" copper line then comes down and around the garage and into the side of the house. This is probably 100ft or more.

[cjt]

FWIW, a few years ago one of my trees managed to achieve a new source of irrigation by splitting the pipe (downstream of the meter) that runs from the curb to my house. My neighbor noticed HIS yard was getting soggy.