When you think of water conservation, you probably immediately think of the most obvious ways to conserve. For example, you may consider taking shorter showers, watering your lawn less often, washing dishes by hand, or only washing clothes only when you have a full load. These are all excellent ways to conserve water; however, in order to get the most out of water conservation, it’s also important to understand one of the less obvious ways to conserve water—detecting and fixing home water appliance leaks. You’ll be surprised to know that by detecting and fixing leaks of toilets, faucets and other fixtures, the average household can conserve up to 10,000 gallons of water each year. Not only does this conserve water, but also it saves homeowners money. Here are just a few tips and tricks to detecting leaks and fixing them.
Food-Coloring Trick – It’s often difficult to tell when a toilet is leaking when you don’t hear water running, or see water flowing into the bowl. If you suspect excess water is leaking down the drain, consider adding a few drops of food coloring to the tank and then watch carefully for 15 minutes. If you notice any colored water in the bowl, it means you have a leak that needs to be addressed. In order to fix the problem, replace the flapper valve with a new one.
Flour Trick – Another way to determine whether or not a toilet is leaking is to sprinkle flour on the top of the water in the tank. If the flour quickly collects around the overflow tube, then it’s time to replace the float valve.
Pencil Trick – If neither the food-coloring trick nor the flour trick helped you detect the leak, you can also try the pencil trick. This will help you determine if the flush valve or the refill valve is leaking. All you have to do is draw a line at the level of the water, flush the toilet, and then check the water level 30 minutes later. If the water level doesn’t move, it usually indicates a leak in the refill valve. If the water is lower than where the pencil mark was drawn, the leak is coming from the flush valve.
While detecting a toilet leak requires some basic kitchen items and a bit of creativity, fixing the leak is usually an easy do it yourself process. On the other hand, detecting other kinds of leaks like a garbage disposal leak or an indoor faucet leak may be easy to see immediately, but may require more expertise in order to fix. Of course, it is possible to fix these types of leaks on your own, but it may be more convenient to simply call in the professional plumbers. At Absolute Precision Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, we are just a call away for help with water leak detection and any fixes or learn more on our website. We look forward to serving you.
– Ken
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