Phantom Flushes, Drips in the Night?
Tips for Busting Common Household Leaks
By Debbie Arrington
Guest Writer
Flush! Was that money going down the drain?
If you have an inefficient toilet, it is. Old toilets use much more water than their high-efficiency counterparts. You could cut down on that water waste by more than three quarters – just by installing a new WaterSense-labeled toilet. It’s like getting three out of four flushes for free.
Toilets represent the biggest indoor water use in the Sacramento region, says Don Smith, water management coordinator for the City of Folsom. “Depending on the age of your fixtures, they also can represent the potential for the biggest savings,” Smith says.
The older the toilet, the more water it uses. In general, toilets manufactured before 1982 use 5 to 7 gallons per flush. Today’s low-flush toilets use only 1.28 gallons per flush. Swapping out the old toilet for an efficient model can automatically save 75 percent or more.
Even replacing a “newer” toilet can add up to big savings. If your home was built in 1992 or earlier, its original toilets use more than 3 gallons per flush. For a family of four, high-efficiency toilets will save an estimated 17,000 gallons a year.
“Some people are a little leery about giving up their big-tank toilets,” Smith adds. “The engineering in the early low-flow toilets was not very good. They moved the water, but often you had to flush twice. But that’s all fixed,” he continues. “Today’s low-flow toilets have very good performance. They work as designed – with one flush.”
Look for the WaterSense label; those efficient toilets are third-party tested to ensure high performance and water savings.
Even efficient toilets can become water wasters if they develop a leak.
“They’re called ‘phantom flushes’; you hear the tank refill and nobody flushed,” Smith says. “It’s not a poltergeist; it’s your flapper valve. It’s letting water seep out (of the tank into the bowl) and triggers the float valve.”
Phantom flushes are easy to check and easy to fix, says Smith. “Put a few drops of food coloring into the tank. If the color bleeds into the bowl, it’s a sure sign you’ve got a leak.”
The solution: Replace the flapper valve. “I recommend that flapper valves be replaced routinely once a year,” Smith says. “It’s an easy way to stop those silent leaks.”
Replacing old showerheads with high-efficient WaterSense-labeled models is another easy swap that adds up to potentially big savings. A standard showerhead uses 2.5 gallons per minute, or 25 gallons for a 10-minute shower. A low-flow head can cut that use by 40 percent – without cutting shower time.
Like their leeriness of low-flow toilets, consumers also had doubts about low-flow showerheads, Smith says. “Early on, when they were first introduced, you had to run around to get wet – they just didn’t work very well. But the engineering has improved so much, the new low-flow showerheads work great.”
Upgrading appliances such as EnergyStar-labeled clothes washers also can contribute to big savings. A clothes washer, for example, can represent 20 percent of indoor water use. An average family of four does about 300 loads of washing annually; that’s 12,000 gallons of water. EnergyStar washers cut that use by 35 percent while also using 20 percent less energy. Washer rebates currently are offered by nine local water providers.
Often, the biggest savings come from leak detection, Smith notes. But unless water is pooling somewhere, those leaks may be invisible.
Get to know your water meter, Smith says. “Look at the face of the meter. It has a low-flow indicator. It turns to show water is moving somewhere in the system. If it’s turning, water is moving. So, if everything is off in the house and the sprinklers are not running, if you see that little device turning, you have a leak somewhere.”
Several local water providers offer free Water-Wise House Calls that run such system checks to highlight where potential leaks might lurk, as well as offer more water-saving suggestions. Many also offer rebates to upgrade older fixtures and appliances such as toilets, showerheads and clothes washers.
Learn more about rebates and tips for finding and fix household leaks at BeWaterSmart.info.
Debbie Arrington is a longtime home and garden reporter and co-author of the blog Sacramento Digs Gardening: https://sacdigsgardening.blogspot.com/
