Check for water leaks

Check for leaks around your home

Leaks are the worst water wasters in your home. Water that leaks does not get used for any beneficial purpose, yet it was treated to be safe to drink.
Check every faucet, toilet, showerhead, connector, and hose bib around the house for leaks. Even a slow drip can use 15 to 20 gallons of water a day. Larger leaks and running toilets can use up to 100 gallons of water per day or more.
Check for hidden leaks in your water system. Turn off all the faucets in and around your house, then check your water meter. The water meter is in the meter box located at the front of your house, usually in the sidewalk or grass strip. Wait 15 minutes without turning any water on and check the meter again. If the reading has changed, you have a leak. If you can’t locate the leak indoors, check around the yard for wet spots or small patches of very green grass or vegetation. The leak may be in an irrigation line or in the water line running to the house.
All but the oldest water meters in the Corvallis Water System have a leak detector built-in. Look on the face of your meter and you should see a red triangle or diamond shape. This is the leak detector, and it is on a much smaller gear than the dials or digits. Any time water is moving through the meter, this detector spins. If you are not using water and the detector is spinning, chances are you have a leak. Fix it!

Check toilets for leaks at least twice per year. Place a dye tablet or several drops of food coloring in the toilet tank (not the bowl). DO NOT FLUSH THE TOILET! Wait at least 15 minutes. After waiting, check the BOWL to see if there is any color. If there is, you have a leak! It is most likely the flapper, but might be the fill valve. Fortunately, both are easy to fix with few or no tools.

Flush only when needed. Flushing gum wrappers, spiders, or cigarette butts uses water needlessly.
If you have an older toilet that uses more than 1.6 gallons per flush, put a water displacement device inside the tank. You can make one simply by filling a plastic bottle with water and adding a few stones or marbles to weigh it down. Make sure the bottle doesn’t interfere with the movement of any hardware.
Better yet, consider replacing older inefficient toilets (those made before 1992) with modern High Efficiency Toilets (check here for a list of current models) that use 1.28 gallons per flush or less. Some of these efficient even toilets qualify for a rebate of up to $75 from the City of Corvallis.

Household Leak Detection from the Regional Water Providers Consortium

Toilet Leaks Retrofits and Replacements from the Regional Water Providers Consortium