Water Leak - How to Find It Yourself

How to Find Your Water Leak?

Have a high water bill, sounds of running water in your house, pool level dropping significantly, wet spot in the yard, hot floor or are you just paranoid and want to check and make sure that you don't have a leak? You've come to the right page.

FINDING YOUR WATER LEAK STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

You can learn more by visiting LeakSquad.com

There is nothing like getting your water bill and finding that you have a 300-500% increase in water usage. What's even worse is that by the time you got your high water bill you are already half way into the next month. It is not just about the dollar amount but the main question most people ask is: "Where did all that water go? Is it under my house"? Continues leaks can cause huge damages to the foundation of a house, just look at the Grand Canyon. Luckily if you had a really big water leak you would have probably know about it before the water bill got to your mailbox. Normally it's the small leaks that go unnoticed for an extended period of time.

STEP 1   - LOOK:

Check you water meter and see if the small dial is spinning. It is star or triangle shaped right under the big dial. If you have a small leak the small dial will turn but really really slowly. 

If it takes 2-3 minutes to turn a full circle you may have a dripping faucet.

If it turns 2 or more times per minute you probably have a small leak. If you see the star spin fast you have a huge leak. If the star stops and goes most likely it's a toilet float or an automatic water leveler for the pool.

STEP 2 - TEST:

Depending on what you see on your water meter do some or all of the following tests one by one and check the water meter every time:

A - Check all of your toilets for running water sounds or try to see ripples in the water in the bowl.

B - Turn OFF your irrigation

C - Turn OFF your automatic water filler for the pool or spa or any other water features

D - Turn OFF the main house valve

E - Check and make sure that none of your appliances is running

F - Make sure that your water softener or RO system is turned OFF

G - Turn your hot water line OFF

H - Look for dripping faucets

 I - Make sure none of your outside hose bibs are dripping or running into the bushes or mulch

J - Check your guest house or pool house toilet, most people forget this

STEP 3 - CONCLUDE:

A - If you have done all this and the water meter is still showing a leak, your leak is in the main water supply line between the water meter and your house. This is the only pipe that you didn't turn off.

B - If the meter stopped spinning after turning off one of the culprits then that is where your leak was. 

C - This test wouldn't be accurate if one of the shut off valves didn't work properly. For an example: If you turned of the hot water line but the valve is rusted on the inside and doesn't shut completely you may have the false information that the leak is not in the hot water line. If this is the case you can always try to put your ear or a metal object to the valve and listen. You can often hear the water running through the closed valve. 

OTHER SCENARIOS: 

You may find that your water meter is not turning. How did I get a big water bill when I don't have a leak?

This is good news. If the meter doesn't register any flow, that means that you don't have any broken pipes. No repairs needed. Now you have to do some detective work. What could have happened that caused the city to bill me this much? Hmmm...

1 - One of your toilets occasionally gets stuck and keeps running. This happens about 50% of the time. Just spend more time next to the toilet after flushing. You may find that it operates just fine 5 times but the sixth time it keeps running.

2 - Look at your irrigation program. Did you know that programs A, B and C all run at the same time? Most people think that if they have it in A mode, only the A program runs. Not true. All 3 run every day or when ever the programs are set. Your landscaper may have played with it and messed it up last month and now you have to pay the huge water bill.

3 - One of your irrigation valves sometimes gets stuck. This is really hard to find and I can't help you over the internet. Call a leak detector.

4 - Your kids left the hose on in the pool. You would think that the water would overflow and you would see it but no. The water will go under your deck and often disappear underground. Just one day or night like that and your water bill will triple. You will never figure this one out as your kids will not admit. I even had cases where the wife wont admit but she knows she did it. 

5 - Your digital RO system or Water Softener goes crazy every once in a while and dumps a bunch of fresh water. This is also hard to find but if you have to replace your filter or ad salt to often, then that was it.

I hope this article helped you troubleshoot your water leak or your high water bill. 

You can always learn more at LeakSquad.com or ask question for free on our Forum.

Thanks for reading,

Vic Leak

Leak Squad

office (at) leaksquad.com

How to Find your Pool Leak in 5 Steps

Is Your Pool Leaking?

5 Steps You Should Do Before Calling a Professional Leak Detector:
www.LeakSquad.com

1: Do a Bucket Test

  Fill a bucket with water about 1" to the top and place it on the first step in the pool. Keep your dogs away, they will drink out of the bucket. Mark the water level inside the test bucket and then mark the pool level on the OUTSIDE of the bucket. Your bucket test should look like this:

The idea behind the pool bucket test is that the water inside the bucket will evaporate at the same rate like the water in the pool. So if your bucket loses 1/2 inch of water and your pool loses 1/2 inch - There is NO leak!

If your Pool loses 1 inch and the bucket 1/2 inch of water column then you have a 1/2 inch leak. You can multiply this by the surface area of your pool and find out exactly how much water you are losing in a 24h period. 

A bucket test is always expressed in inches of water over a 24 hour period of time. All evaporation rates are in inches/time.

Make sure that your automatic water filler is turned off. Your equipment should be in normal running mode.

2: Turn Off your Pool Pumps and Do Another Bucket Test

                           

After you have completed your bucket test and confirmed your pool leak, turn off the equipment and do it again over 24h. Remove the ON pins from your timer or turn off your digital timer. You should turn your breakers OFF too just in case. 

    a: If the leak rate is the same, most likely your leak is not related to the pool plumbing and it will probably be in the shell or vinyl. 

    b: If the leak rate is less with the equipment off, your leak is in the pressure side plumbing or in the waterfall or any spillway you may have.

    c: If the leak is bigger in the second bucket test you have a leak on the suction side of your plumbing. 

3: Dye Test

Get a syringe, some food coloring or dye, diving mask and your shorts. Dye test the following areas first: Skimmer opening, around all pipes, around all lights, conduits, pool vinyl or fiberglass or any other fittings in your pool. You do this by gently without stirring up the water injecting very little color close to a suspected possible leak (within 1" from it)

4: Check for Cracks

Slowly look for fine hairline cracks usually running up and down the pool wall. These cracks often start from the tile grout and go deep down into the pool. It is important to check Tile by Tile. Take your time. Cracks in pebbletec are extremely hard to spot, so really take your time. Plaster cracks are ease to see.

5: Dye Test for Pipe Leaks

If you determined that you have a pipe leak during your bucket test you can dye test your pipes to narrow the search down to a single pipe. Start with the skimmer pipe by slowly injecting dye near the pipe opening. Watch the color for 10-20 seconds and see if you can notice any movement. Repeat this for each pipe. Your return lines come in sets of 2 or more. You can use a sponge to plug all of them but one. Dye test the unplugged pipe and see if it pulls any dye. Sometimes the pipe will suck the dye in and then spit it right out. This usually indicates that it doesn't leak. Once you found which pipe is leaking you can plug it and do another bucket test to make sure that you don't have any other pool leaks. Now you need to call a leak detector to locate the leak under ground. They will normally charge you less if you already know which pipe is leaking. 

I hope this article was helpful. For more information about pool leaks visit LeakSquad.com
Also check my other articles on blogger.

Vic Leak