Small water leaks can cost you big money and waste electricity!
Water leaks can be particularly annoying and the damage is often far more than simply having to listen to monotonous dripping sounds. Those water drops represent potential water damage to building structures and they represent the wasted energy that was used to procure, filter, disinfect and pump that water to your property! In this blog we’re going to discuss locations where leaks are commonly found and explore the common techniques used for identifying and locating leaks that are more elusive.
Basic leak checking techniques
The first question you need to ask is “Do I have any leaks?” If you have a water meter from your well or city connection you are in luck! Some cities will allow you to check your water meter online and will even give estimates of potential leakage rates. Check with your city water supplier to see if they have this capability or not. If you don’t have online access, that’s ok, it just means locating and reading your water meter manually a few times. If you are going to check manually for leaks, first go through your home on a day when nobody is home and make sure all your sinks and showers are turned off and that the ice-maker or under-sink water filter are either turned off or full/not using any water. Then head to the water meter and snap a picture of the dial. Wait an hour (or more) and take another picture. Now compare the two photos. Has anything changed? If so, you have a leak, or someone has inadvertently used some water. If you suspect a leak, do this experiment again to verify that someone/something didn’t accidentally use water without your knowledge! If this sounds too tedious, check out another recent blog about the Flume 2 which will read your water meter and alert/report to your phone and give you the ability to see the water usage and flows at the tip of your fingers.
If you don’t have a water meter to check for leaks, perhaps you have a water storage tank. Make sure you aren’t using any water, turn the well pump off that fills the storage tank and see if the water level in the tank decreases over time without any water being used in the house. Perhaps you don’t have a large water tank, but you have a well that fills a pressure tank, the procedure is the same with a slight difference. Make sure you aren’t using any water, turn off the power to the well pump and take note of the water pressure at the pressure gauge located near the pressure switch/pressure tank. Come back an hour or more later and see if the pressure has decreased. If the water level in your storage tank has decreased or the pressure on your pressure gauge has decreased, double check that all the water is off, turn the pumps back on to refill the tank(s) and perform the experiment again to confirm you have a leak.
Common Leak Points
We’re now going to shift our attention to where we typically find water leaks. Water leaks typically occur at appliances, junctures, connection or transition points. Below is a list of where our crew members typically find the leak culprits.
Leaking Toilet Valves
One of the biggest water wasters is toilet valves that don’t quite turn off when the toilet tank is full and the toilet tank overfills and then overflows down the toilet bowls. In some cases the toilet fill valve is ok, but the flapper valve that lest the water from the tank into the toilte bowl is worn/defective. The results are the same, wasted water! This can happen silently, un-noticed or is even thought of as normal operation. Toilet valves are the first thing to check and are typically an inexpensive replacement item from your local hardware store or Amazon, requiring very few tools and minimal expertise to replace.
Leaking Water Filters, Water Softeners or Water Conditioners
Water filters typically have several connection points, automatic valves for self cleaning or “O” ring type connections where filter cartridges are replaced or unscrewed. Carefully inspect around any filters in your home if you suspect a leak. In addition to visual inspection of the filters and below them for water/wetness, make sure it is quiet and listen for any hissing noises. Water softeners, iron filters as well as other types of filters that “backwash” or clean themselves will frequently have a connection to a drain line where they can flush dirty water into. Inspect this pipe where it enters the drain, is water coming out of it constantly? If so the filter head may have a piece of debris in it or many need to be serviced so that it does not leak continually. The flush valve should open, the filter should flush and then it should close completely when the regeneration cycle is complete. Reverse osmosis filter under your sink work a bit differently than water softeners, iron filters, etc… RO’s create a waste stream whenever they are filtering water. To verify that your RO filter is working properly, make sure to check it in the morning before you have used any water. The RO should have had the opportunity to filter during the night and fill up the small storage tank under the sink. There should be no waste stream to drain or other leakage visible.
Leaking Storage Tanks
Water storage tanks are a common point of leakage whether they are wood, plastic or metal! For some reason, water storage tanks are commonly used as target practice for those with itchy trigger fingers! Look over your storage tank for the telltale holes and, while you’re at it, check to see if any of the places where the storage tank has pipes going in our out of it have signs of water dripping or leaking. Storage tanks, ideally, are installed with flexible connection joints the the rigid pipes they supply. This is because storage tanks naturally flex/expand due to temperatures changes, varying tank levels and even tremors and earthquakes. Check for signs that the tank is overfilling or overflowing too. A float switch or float valve malfunction can cause the storage tank to overfill and the overflow water wastes water, electricity and money just like any water leak does!
Leaking copper or galvanized steel pipe.
Many properties have galvanized copper or galvanized steel piping. Copper is frequently used in plumbing of homes while galvanized steel piping was regularly used for many years in wells, underground and even to supply water inside homes. Metallic piping can and does corrode! If you are on city water, the city will usually ensure that the pH/corrosively of the water is corrected to minimize the effects of corrosion. Many properties with well water, however, have water that is acidic and corrodes the steel or copper piping. If you have green or red staining on your fixtures, on reason could be that your piping is being dissolved by acidic water and you are seeing the copper oxide or iron oxide deposits on your sinks and in your toilets. You should have your water and piping checked! Many homes that have copper piping with acidic water in them will start to develop “pin hole” leaks in the copper pipe after several years of service. Replacing this piping can be very expensive and it may be advisable to use a PEX or other similar product in the future to avoid this problem recurring.
Irrigation Valves
If you have an automatic sprinkler system for your yard or drip system for your garden, these are definitely worth a check! The irrigation valves sometimes have debris or mineral deposits in them and don’t shut off properly. Listening at the irrigation valve box(es) will often provide the clue of a slight hiss of water leakage. If you use a landscaper, have them include checking the irrigation valve box as a regular part of their maintenance schedule! Many new irrigation controllers, like the Hunter Hydrawise series allow you to connect a compatible pulse output flow meter and monitor your water usage from several water meters, correlate that water usage to sprinkler zones and check for leaks based on water usage times.
Is there a leak down in the well?
Galvanized piping down wells is responsible for lots of leaked water and wasted electricity. “What?” I can hear you asking. A leak in my well, how can that even matter? Many wells are very deep with large pumps in them. The combined weight of the pump, motor, wire, pipe and water in the pipe can easily reach several thousand pounds! This amount of weight cannot be supported by normal PVC or HDPE piping and so stronger galvanized coated steel piping is frequently used in these applications. Well water, at least in our area of the Napa Valley, typically has lower pH, around 5.5 to 6.5 and the well pipe is exposed to this water both on the outside and the side of the pipe. A certain portion of the pipe that goes down the well to the pump is exposed to water and then air repeatedly as the pump turns on, draws the water level in the well down and then turns off, allowing the water level to come back up or “recover.” This zone of piping is subject to very high levels of corrosion as it is repeatedly exposed to low pH water and then air. Over several years this piping can corrode and pinholes will develop and then get larger and larger. When the pinhole leaks are small there is no noticeable effect to the water delivered, but after time these pinholes can develop into large jets of water and the pump can no longer deliver enough pressure or water volume to your home or garden. If you listen at the well head there should only be a noticeable humming sound, but if you hear any kind of spraying sound, you know you have a problem down the well! This type of problem is cannot be decerned by a flowmeter because it happens BEFORE you can measure the water with a flowmeter on the surface. Galvanized piping in wells should be replaced IMMEDIATELY if you suspect that it may have pinholes in it. Those pinholes act as water jets and spray continually at the side of the well casing and will eventually blast a hole in the well casing! In some cases repairs have to be made to the well casing because sand, gravel and other debris that the well casing keeps out of the well start to fall into the well and contaminate the water or damage the pump. In extreme cases, the metallic pipe will corrode until it breaks and the pump, remaining pipe and wire will plunge to the bottom of the well damaging the well casing on the way and require more expense and efforts to attempt to retrieve old equipment from the bottom of the well before new equipment is installed.
Certainteed PVC Sch 80 an Sch 120 Drop Pipe for Submersible Well Pump applications
Fortunately, newer types of pipe have been developed, such as those developed by CertainTeed pictured on the right. Many pump installers use these types of pipe that, while still strong, are not subject to corrosion. These pipes are heavy duty Sch 80 or Sch 120 PVC “drop pipe” that can be selected based on pump size and depth and are not subject to corrosion. Many of these new kinds of pipe can be reused when the pump is replaced and represent a longer term investment than their galvanized coated steel counterparts. With that in mind, there are still some very deep wells with large pumps that require metal drop pipe. If metal drop pipe is required for large amounts of weight, it is important to use the best quality galvanized pipe or if the budget allows, a stainless steel drop pipe.
Swimming Pool or Hot Tub Leaks
Many pools and hot tubs have automatic fill valves to compensate for water loss from normal splashing and evaporation. These valves automatically fill the pool to a set level and then turn off. If this fill valve is not closing properly it will continually add water to the pool, the pool will fill to it’s normal overflow point and then the excess water will overflow to drain. If the pool valve is set to fill the pool to level above the pool overflow, the pool valve will never shut off! This is really hard on your water bill, electricity bill and bill for chlorine or other pool chemicals! If you suspect your pool is the cultprit, shut off the water supply to the pool in the evening and see if the water level in the pool drops overnight. Doing this at night rules out the water losses from evaporation. Next, locate your overflow on the pool and make sure that the automatic fill valve turns off before the pool reaches that level! If you suspect that the actual pool has a leak in it, then you may call your local pool service company and have them repair any underwater cracks, replace any gaskets around pool lights or inlet/outlet piping and check the fill valve for proper function.
What if I have a leak and can’t find it?
Leaks under roads/driveways or underground as well as leaks from underground swimming pools can be very difficult to find. These tough to locate leaks will require special techniques and training in order to pinpoint. One technique uses very sensitive microphones to “listen” to the ground to find the offending leak. Another technique involves draining the pipeline suspected of having a leak and injecting an inert, non toxic gas like helium into the pipeline. Then a special electronic “sniffer” is used to “smell” the helium gas. As you can imagine, both of these techniques require trained personnel and specialized equipment and cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars! Because of the expense, many people delay dealing with these leaks, but this delay often results in even more wasted water, electricity and money. In some cases, when the leak is inside of a home, delay in the location of a leak can lead to massive costs for water damage repair! American Leak Detectors has very qualified staff with prompt service to help you locate those difficult to find leaks.
Oakville Pump Service has a qualified team of water specialists that help our customers with all their water needs! If we can help you pump your water more efficiently, manage your water resources more effectively or increase your water availability or quality, give us a call today at (707) 944-2471 to talk about your needs
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