Leaking pipes – Dripping Faucets
How much water do you think could be lost from a small hole in a pipe? You may think that a dripping tap is not a problem, however if you allow it to continue, even a small hole of 1.5 mm diameter will waste in excess of 90,000 liters a month. Converting this to monetary value, your drip could be costing you an extra $95 a month. Over a one-year period it equates to 1,120,000 liters or over $1000.
Dripping Faucets
Do you have a slow dripping faucet you’ve been ignoring? A minor leak may not seem like a big deal, but over time it can add up in a big way!
Just the Facts on Leaks
The most common causes of leaks in houses are from dripping faucets, leaky valves or leaky flappers within your toilet system leading to water constantly flowing.
To put things into perspective, the amount of water lost from a leaky faucet in the average home is enough to fill a swimming pool in your back garden, with up to 10% of homes wasting 90 gallons daily.
How to find out if you have a leak
The easiest way to find out whether or not you have a water leak is to check the numbers on your water meter. Prior to accessing your water meter ensure that you have turned off any of the appliances that use water, including washing machines, dishwashers, automatic icemakers. Ensure that all water is turned off both internally and externally, then access your meter. This may be located in a concrete container on the parking strip or on the sidewalk and will have an access cover protecting it. You will need to remove this cover and then lift the lid of the vault.
There are various types of meter, the most common having just one dial. This dial should be static, otherwise it is an indication that you have a water leak as water is passing through the meter (hence turning off all appliances that use water beforehand). If your meter is static you can double check by taking a benchmark meter reading and returning after a set time period to see if the meter reading has increased in any way.
If you do have a water leak you will need to contact somebody to get it fixed as over time it will cause you major expense.
Detecting leaks
The worst culprit for water leaks is in your bathroom. A flapper valve that is defective, a faulty flapper valve seat or ballcock valve and a crooked float arm are all examples of how toilets can leak water. Faulty overflow tubes can also cause leaks. Some of these leaks can be difficult to detect so it is worth checking regularly for problems, especially when a defective toilet can leak huge amounts of water hourly.
Ways to detect a leak from a toilet would be to tip a small amount of food coloring or a dye tablet into your cistern, 15 minutes later you should check the water to see whether any of the coloured water has leaked out. If your water is still clear, you do not have a leak, however if the water is colored you will need to get the toilet repaired.
In comparison, faucet leaks can be easy to find. Defective faucets can lead to even more expense if it is the hot faucet at fault due to the water being continually heated.
If a shower head is dripping, or water is running down the hose, a washer may have degraded. This will need to be replaced quickly, together with any leaks from the bath faucet when the shower is being used.
Low flow shower heads are designed to save water, however if you have a leak you will be wasting any water that you may have saved via the faucet.
If you want to make the repairs yourself you can call into a local plumbing supply store to purchase the parts that you will require. A hardware store may also be able to provide most products. Old age, corrosion and wear and tear are the most common reasons for needing to fix a leaky pipe or faucet.
If you are not confident enough to complete the job you can call a local plumber to provide the service for you.
Water saving toilets
It is now possible to purchase water saving toilets that use a fraction of the water that a regular toilet goes through. This can be cost effective as a model that uses 6 litres of water can save a family of four up to 80,000 litres annually.
Water system leaks
Water systems can be either single oscillating heads or in ground systems. Whichever system you have you should be checking it regularly to ensure that water is not being wasted. If you consider that the volume of water that goes through typical garden hose is around 27 liters per minute, if there was damage to the hose or a bad connection, the water wasted would quickly add up. For this reason, it is worth double checking that the faucet is turned off after use.
There are various ways that you can reduce the amount of water that you use in your garden, and also ways that you can recycle water to use instead of using fresh water each time. Your lawn will not mind if the water you use comes from a rainwater butt or fresh from the hose. Watering cans will use less water than using a hosepipe, especially if you use a ‘rose’ on the end of the spout to disperse the water. Alternatively you could use drip irrigation. Try to avoid using sprinkler systems for extended amounts of time as they use a vast quantity of water. Limit the time that the sprinkler head is functioning to save a wealth of water. Consider that you will be using the same amount of water in one hour with a sprinkler as a dishwasher would use to wash 5 entire loads of dishes.
Hopefully this article has given you some advice on what to do if you think you have a leak. If you suspect that you have a leak in an in-ground system (you may have patches of water on your lawn) you will need to contact a specialist for assistance.