| Sysop: | Amessyroom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Fayetteville, NC |
| Users: | 23 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
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| Calls: | 583 |
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179 files (27,921K bytes) |
| Messages: | 111,801 |
I have a 'Smart' meter on my water supply. I have a softener for the
house supply that regenerates based on the amount of water used. The
only unsoftened outlets are the kitchen drinking water cold tap, and
the outdoor tap, both of which come from the same pipe.
Recently, in the last month, the softener's salt consumption has
gone up, considerably. I looked at the water meter readings, and they
agree. But I cannot think of any change in my water use.
The obvious thought is that there is a leak, but where? I can find
absolutely no sign of any. The outside tap does not leak, and is shut
off indoors anyway. None of the taps are dripping. None of the
overflows are showing any discharge. The drains for the washing machine
and the dishwasher need power to run water to the drain. There is a
cellar in the middle of the house, where I would expect any water that
leaked out to gravitate to, but it is dry. The box where the outside
pipe enters the house is dry, so no leaks there, and the underground
space outside which houses the meter is similarly dry. There is no sound
of running water in the softener box, which is right above the entry
box.
The recorded meter readings give little help, they are sporadic and interrupted enough that trying to correlate high water use with a known
event in the house is very difficult indeed. But on a day when I did a clothes wash, and therefore used maybe 80-100 litres more than a
'normal' day, the readings show that I had minimal use! The water
company online query system says that it could take up to 10 days to
respond to questions.
As much as the reported readings are of little help, they do confirm
that the theoretical leak is of softened water, and all but 1 run of
that is in the house, so would be discovered. Only one run, to the
kitchen, is underground, in concrete. I hope that there is no leak
there, it would be messy to fix that. And how do I check?
I am trying to think of experiments using selective shut-offs to try to isolate any leak, but the random meter readings reported by the water
company do not help detailed analysis. Luckily, as we are in summer, I
can leave the supply turned off without worrying about anything running
dry and burning out.
Any helpful ideas would be welcome.
Davey <davey@example.invalid> wrote:
I have a 'Smart' meter on my water supply. I have a softener for the
house supply that regenerates based on the amount of water used. The
only unsoftened outlets are the kitchen drinking water cold tap, and
the outdoor tap, both of which come from the same pipe.
Recently, in the last month, the softener's salt consumption has
gone up, considerably. I looked at the water meter readings, and
they agree. But I cannot think of any change in my water use.
The obvious thought is that there is a leak, but where? I can find absolutely no sign of any. The outside tap does not leak, and is
shut off indoors anyway. None of the taps are dripping. None of the overflows are showing any discharge. The drains for the washing
machine and the dishwasher need power to run water to the drain.
There is a cellar in the middle of the house, where I would expect
any water that leaked out to gravitate to, but it is dry. The box
where the outside pipe enters the house is dry, so no leaks there,
and the underground space outside which houses the meter is
similarly dry. There is no sound of running water in the softener
box, which is right above the entry box.
The recorded meter readings give little help, they are sporadic and interrupted enough that trying to correlate high water use with a
known event in the house is very difficult indeed. But on a day
when I did a clothes wash, and therefore used maybe 80-100 litres
more than a 'normal' day, the readings show that I had minimal use!
The water company online query system says that it could take up to
10 days to respond to questions.
As much as the reported readings are of little help, they do confirm
that the theoretical leak is of softened water, and all but 1 run of
that is in the house, so would be discovered. Only one run, to the
kitchen, is underground, in concrete. I hope that there is no leak
there, it would be messy to fix that. And how do I check?
I am trying to think of experiments using selective shut-offs to
try to isolate any leak, but the random meter readings reported by
the water company do not help detailed analysis. Luckily, as we are
in summer, I can leave the supply turned off without worrying about anything running dry and burning out.
Any helpful ideas would be welcome.
DoesnrCOt the water meter have a conventional display as well as its
data link?
Moving this to the d-i-y NG, where it should have been in the first
place.
Moving this to the d-i-y NG, where it should have been in the first
place.
I was beginning to wonder what the connection was :-\
Any helpful ideas would be welcome.
On 8 Jul 2025, Davey wrote
(in article <104iqbe$3g044$1@dont-email.me>):
Any helpful ideas would be welcome.
My insurance company has given me a rCLLeakBotrCY device, which attaches
to the pipe just after the main stop cock. It monitors daily usage,
which I can read on the accompanying app, but it also sends you a
warning if there is a steady flow such as with a leak...
Also, if you have a header tank for the cold water supply in your
house, or one for a central heating system, check the ball cocks have
not stuck open...
Also, if you have a header tank for the cold water supply in your house, or one for a central heating system, check the ball cocks have not stuck open...
Also, if you have a header tank for the cold water supply in your
house, or one for a central heating system, check the ball cocks have
not stuck open...
In which case you would either have water dribbling from the external overflow pipe (unless some moron has fed it in to the gutter) - or the
house would be flooded :-\
On 09/07/2025 10:58, Abandoned Trolley wrote:
Also, if you have a header tank for the cold water supply in your
house, or one for a central heating system, check the ball cocks have
not stuck open...
In which case you would either have water dribbling from the external
overflow pipe (unless some moron has fed it in to the gutter) - or the
house would be flooded :-\
WCs with close coupled cisterns can also have a ball cock and may have
an internal overflow, the water running unnoticed into the WC pan.
I have a 'Smart' meter on my water supply. I have a softener for the
house supply that regenerates based on the amount of water used. The
only unsoftened outlets are the kitchen drinking water cold tap, and
the outdoor tap, both of which come from the same pipe.
Recently, in the last month, the softener's salt consumption has
gone up, considerably.
On 08/07/2025 11:02, Davey wrote:
I have a 'Smart' meter on my water supply. I have a softener for the
house supply that regenerates based on the amount of water used. The
only unsoftened outlets are the kitchen drinking water cold tap, and
the outdoor tap, both of which come from the same pipe.
Recently, in the last month, the softener's salt consumption has
gone up, considerably.
Late to the party, but check your loft tank. I had exactly the same
problem, and it turned out to be the loft tank fill valve was not 'completely' shutting off, and still dripping. In (what was) a busy household of 4, the loft tank never got anywhere near overflowing, so
I didn't notice.
I had got a bloke in from the Softner company, because I was sure it
was faulty. He went straight up into the loft, showed me the problem,
he fitted a new valve, and problem solved instantly (literally)
On 08/07/2025 11:02, Davey wrote:
I have a 'Smart' meter on my water supply. I have a softener for the
house supply that regenerates based on the amount of water used. The
only unsoftened outlets are the kitchen drinking water cold tap, and
the outdoor tap, both of which come from the same pipe.
Recently, in the last month, the softener's salt consumption has
gone up, considerably.
Late to the party, but check your loft tank. I had exactly the same
problem, and it turned out to be the loft tank fill valve was not 'completely' shutting off, and still dripping. In (what was) a busy household of 4, the loft tank never got anywhere near overflowing, so I didn't notice.
I had got a bloke in from the Softner company, because I was sure it was faulty. He went straight up into the loft, showed me the problem, he
fitted a new valve, and problem solved instantly (literally)
On 21/07/2025 10:52, Mark Carver wrote:
On 08/07/2025 11:02, Davey wrote:
I have a 'Smart' meter on my water supply. I have a softener for the
house supply that regenerates based on the amount of water used. The
only unsoftened outlets are the kitchen drinking water cold tap, and
the outdoor tap, both of which come from the same pipe.
Recently, in the last month, the softener's salt consumption has
gone up, considerably.
Late to the party, but check your loft tank. I had exactly the same
problem, and it turned out to be the loft tank fill valve was not
'completely' shutting off, and still dripping. In (what was) a busy
household of 4, the loft tank never got anywhere near overflowing, so
I didn't notice.
I had got a bloke in from the Softner company, because I was sure it
was faulty. He went straight up into the loft, showed me the problem,
he fitted a new valve, and problem solved instantly (literally)
If "the loft tank never got anywhere near overflowing" why was the drip increasing your consumption of water/salt?
If "the loft tank never got anywhere near overflowing" why was the drip
increasing your consumption of water/salt?
Because it only takes a tiny tiny flow through a softner, to cause it to >continuously consume salt. I hadn't noticed, nor looked for any extra
water consumption, because I never suspected that was the issue. In any
case with two teenage lads in the household, it wouldn't have been >noticeable
In article <105nm70$e0vi$1@dont-email.me>,
Mark Carver <mark@invalid.com> wrote:
If "the loft tank never got anywhere near overflowing" why was the drip
increasing your consumption of water/salt?
Because it only takes a tiny tiny flow through a softner, to cause it to
continuously consume salt. I hadn't noticed, nor looked for any extra
water consumption, because I never suspected that was the issue. In any
case with two teenage lads in the household, it wouldn't have been
noticeable
The thing that's mysterious is that if the tank never overflowed,
there wouldn't have been any more water passing through the softener
than usual. Presumably the explanation is that the softener uses more
salt for a slow flow even though there isn't more water passing
through it in total. In which case salt must be dissolving into your
water rather than merely replacing the calcium ions.