scary water bill

[dahdahdahdancer.livejournal.com]

My latest water bill nearly gave me a heart attack. There's no way I could have used as much cubic feet of H2O as the bill claims. I've just now written a letter to the S'ville Water Dept (as the bill says to do if one wishes to dispute it) - but I was wondering if anyone else in the LJ community has dealt with this kind of problem before. How easy was it for you to get justice (and a lower, accurate bill)? Some details - a new meter was installed a month into the 4-month billing period. I'm being waaay overcharged for the first month, under the old meter. New meter readings are fine.

Comments

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's really easy for one person to use thousands of dollars of water if they have a leaking toilet. If your toilet always makes noise, it's you. If you really want to be sure it's not you turn off the fill valves and see if the toilets drain.

We've had this happen several times in my condo building, and it has not been the water company, it has been a condo owner who didn't notice that their toilet sounded like running water all the time.

Aside from the toilet though there isn't really anything in your house that can waste that much water without flooding you out.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

"If your toilet always makes noise, it's you. If you really want to be sure it's not you turn off the fill valves and see if the toilets drain."

Turning off the supply and checking if the tank drained would show you if there's a problem with the flapper. But it wouldn't diagnose the other common toilet problem: a fill valve/float problem which continuously fills the tank above the overflow tube height.

Dye tablets will detect either problem. Or you can watch/listen carefully.