WATER
CONSERVATION
Leaks
Are You
LEAKING?
Take Five Minutes to Find Out
Leaks Can Waste a Lot
of Water!
A
small leak quickly adds up to a lot of
wasted water. Toilets can silently leak
150 gallons a day, or 55,000 gallons a
year. A pipe leak the size of this letter
L can waste a million gallons a year!
Using Your Water Meter to Check for Leaks is Quick and
Easy:
1) Turn off all the water uses in your house
(faucets, dishwasher, laundry, water
softener, irrigation system, fountain) and grab a screwdriver.
2) Find your water meter. It is in front of your house in the grass near the
sidewalk
or street. The meter is in a small underground box. Look for
a rectangular meter
cover that could be made of cement, metal, or plastic.
3) Lift the cover using the screwdriver or other tool.
4) If there is more than one meter, see the section below to find which is
yours.
5) Lift the meter cap and look for the flow indicator. It could be a small
dial, a triangle, or a wheel. If nothing is moving, there's no leak. If the
flow indicator is spinning and all water uses are turned off, you have a leak.
6) Close the meter cap to protect the lens, and carefully replace the meter
cover.
More than One Meter in the Meter Box?
- Either you have two meters, or one meter
belongs to your neighbor.
- Do you have
both an irrigation meter and a house meter?
You would know from
your water bill. Turn on your irrigation system to find out which is the
irrigation
meter.
- If you share
a meter box with your neighbor and both meters
are not moving, turn
your water on to see which meter is yours. It may not be the one closest
to your
house.
- If you can't tell which meter
is yours, find the meter numbers on the meter
cap,
call the billing office (407-665-2110) and they will confirm which is
yours.
What to Do if You Have a Leak
A series of simple tests will identify the most common types of leaks.
1) Double-check to see that
all water was turned off. What about automatic
refill
usage such as the pool, fountain, water softener, automatic
ice maker, and hot
water heater?
2) Is the leak indoors or outdoors? Find the master shutoff valve (B in the
picture),
usually on the outside of the house or in the garage. Turn
the valve off, and if the
flow indicator is still spinning, your leak is outdoors between
the meter and the
shutoff valve. Locate and repair underground leaks as soon
as possible,
because if left unchecked, they could cause property damage.
3) If the leak is indoors, first check the toilets. Shut off all toilets using
the valve at
the wall behind the toilet, and check the flow indicator.
If it stops spinning, at
least one toilet is leaking. Turn them on one by one and check
the flow indicator
each time. More than one toilet could be leaking.
4) Check other appliances, including water softener, water heater, swamp cooler,
water-cooled air conditioner, and automatic ice maker. Almost
all have bypass
valves. Turn them off one by one, checking the meter between
each.
5) Turn off the master valve to the irrigation system and check the meter.
This will
identify a leak in the headworks of the irrigation system,
but not in the
distribution pipes or sprinkler heads.
6) If none of these tests locates your leak, its time to call the plumber.
If you are happy with how much water you saved after fixing your leaks, let
us know!
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