Fix These 5 Plumbing Leaks and Start Saving Water & Money

 

Household plumbing leaks can lead to thousands of gallons of wasted water per year!

Part of our mission here at Danco is to help our customers both save money and make sure their home plumbing is environmentally friendly. That’s why we’ve put together the following guidelines to help you detect and fix any hidden water leaks in your home.

Checking for Leaks

Some leak sources, like dripping faucets, are obvious culprits, and easily fixed. Many people don’t realize, however, that many sources of water leaks are hidden and not readily visible, going undetected for years. Here are some tips for how to determine if your home has hidden water leaks. The plumber perth can help one because they are reliable and can be trusted with any plumbing related issue.

Check the water meter – Turn off all the water inside and outside your home and make sure no water is used (no flushing toilets, no washing machines, etc.) for 30 minutes. Check your water meter before and after this period. If the level has changed, you probably have leak.

Check your monthly usage – While estimates vary, it’s typically understood that the average person uses 80-100 gallons of water per day. If your last month’s water usage is way above that average, you may have a leak.

Check your toilet – Toilet leaks are surprisingly commonplace. Try this simple test to see if your toilet is leaking: drop a drop of food coloring in the water tank and wait 10 minutes. If some of this color has bled into the toilet bowl when you come back, then you have a leak!

Check faucets – Most faucet leaks are easily detected. For smaller, less obvious leaks, check the pipe fittings and faucet gaskets of all the valves in your home, including water heaters, bathtubs, showers, laundry sinks, etc. If there is water on the outside of the pipe, you may have a leak.

Fixing Leaks

Toilets – Toilet leaks are most often caused by a worn-out toilet flapper/valve seal. These cheap rubber parts easily decay over the years, and are often in need of replacing. Fortunately, this is a quick fix you can easily complete yourself. Check out our video on how to do so, here.

Kitchen faucets – Faucet leaks can be usually traced to an old faucet washer or gasket. These faucets get a lot of mileage over the years, so it’s important to keep them running well! For step-by-step instructions on how to fix various types of faucets, head here, here and here.

Showerheads – Showerhead leaks are often easily fixed by ensuring a proper connection between the showerhead and the pipe stem. Often all that’s needed is a reapplication of Teflon tape, which you can see how to do here. If that doesn’t do the trick, check out this video for more instructions.

Outdoors – If water leaks from where your garden hose connects to the spigot, you’ll need to replace the nylon/rubber washer, and properly reapply Teflon tape.

Follow these guidelines and you can both save money and reduce the water usage in your home. Talk about a win-win scenario! For any more help with DIY plumbing repairs, make sure to head to the How-To Center on our website.