Help. My water bill is etremely high, the water company says i have an intermittent leak. I am using at least 200 gallons of water a day. Sometimes as much as 500. I have had plumbers look and there is no leaks. I have changed the flappers in bothe toilets 3 times. I turned the toilets off for two days and and had the highest output of water for those two days than i had for two weeks. There are no water stains in any walls or large green patches of grass in my yard. I cannot find where i have a leak. Anyone have any ideas.

if onsite inspections by plumbers prove fruitless, turning off toilets makes it worse and there are no signs of an underground leak... all i can say is yikes..

turn off the water before the meter

install a valve AFTER the main BEFORE the house

close this valve

open water at meter

? result ?

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

Demand a new water meter to make sure that your usage is being read accurately.
I am assuming that the meter is outside and not inside.
With an inexpensive pressure gauge and some time on your part, you may be able to narrow down the problem.
Install a pressure gauge on a hose faucet thread and leave that fixture on and shut off the main valve inside the house.
If the pressure drops, the leak is past the main shutoff and inside the house; if it doesn't drop, the leak is probably outside.
It could be inside and your main shutoff isn't working. You can check that by leaving the main valve off and opening the kitchen sink to let off the pressure, then shutting it back off. If the line starts to repressurize, the main shutoff is faulty.
If you can determine that the main shutoff is working properly and the leak is outside, turn the main shutoff back on and shut off the water before the meter and see if the pressure drops on the gauge. If the pressure drops, you can be fairly certain that the leak is between the meter and your main water shutoff, if not, your problem may all be usage. Do you have a water softener? A softener with an addiction to regeneration cycles could account for the mystery water usage.

Nobi don't have a water softner, no dishwasher and no ice maker

Have you checked the water usage dial?

Have you checked the water usage dial? Which raises a question for the rest of you guys: do the new electronic/digital meters still have the dial indicator on them?

In this part of NC, the new meters have the regular number counters that display tenths, as well as a little spinning triangle that indicates any slow flow. The biggest difference is a wire that runs from the meter to the cover with a water-tite cover so all the meter reader needs to do is plug in their electronic reader and that's it. No more popping the hatch and digging thru mud, spiders and snakes to open the dial cover and read the gauge.

The meter is inside the basement. We dont have dials it is a digital read. I even had the guy from the city come out and look at the meter, it read no usage tthe 30 minutes or so he was here.

Whereabouts in IA? southwest IA?

You are going to have to do some detective work now. Record the meter reading every half hour to keep track of the water usage and find out when high usage occurs.

Yes, Find someone who is a "professional" leak locator, NOT a "plumber with a stethescope". Unless you see a wet spor or feel a hot spot on the floor, the only way to find a leak is with very specialized equipment.

Dubuque, iowa

A water meter inside a basement that isn't showing signs of a leak makes me wonder if the problem isn't something more subtle, like a temperature and pressure valve blowing off pressure then reseating. It wouldn't show many signs of discharge if it was piped in properly, and is more likely to happen after showering or laundry, or at night with pressure increases in the system possibly.

Kc i think you may be on to something. But how do i check that, i have two water heaters and i have never seen any water coming from them if thats what u mean. But does that makes sense then, when i turned off the toilets, we thenhad more usage those two days. Is this because of the pressure? Again how can i check this.... thanx everyone for your help



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Moisture in the ends of the T+P discharge tubes would be a good indicator, but that is a symptom, not a cause. Check your water pressure and use a gauge with two needles that indicates highest pressure (the indicator needle pushes a second needle around in front of it) and leave it on overnight. With two heaters it can be a number of things
1. Tanks need drained of sediment -shut off power to both tanks first
2. Water pressure needs checked
3. Thermal expansion tank needs to be checked for reliability and proper pressure
4. At a minimum, the lower elements in both heaters should be checked for proper operation.

I would start in the order listed above. After the tanks are drained of sediment while under pressure, you can either simply use a voltmeter to test the electrical components, or physically remove the water heater elements for inspection. Removal is the best way to check, but a multimeter is a good indicator also. I had one that went bad in my own house, but still tested good until it burned in about 7 locations. If you plan on removing the elements as is best, get a pressure reading on the system first, then drain the tanks out. On the expansion tank, check the air pressure at the schrader valve with a bike/car tire gauge with all the pressure drained from the lines. I usually set mine about 5 psi above the gauge reading. If water comes out of the schrader valve while checking the pressure, the tank is bad and needs replaced. It is most likely this thermal expansion that is causing your trouble.