Sunday, September 14, 2008

What A Drip


So continuing on our water conservation theme, let's check the house for water leaks. It's super-easy (and loads of fun) to do:

At night, place an empty cup under each sink faucet and go to bed. In the morning, if there's any water in the cup, you'll know there's a leak. The same system works for the tubs. Most shower heads don't need to be checked since they're generally tub/shower combos and the water won't even go up to the shower head unless the pulley-uppey thing on the tub faucet is up (sorry to go all technical plumber jargon on you there). However, if you have a separate shower unit, place a dry bucket on the floor directly under the shower head.

Toilets are another matter altogether. Mostly, because they're more fun to check. First, remove the tank off the back of the toilet and squeeze in a couple drops of red food coloring. Then leave it be for 20 minutes or so. When you come back, if the water in the bowl is red, you know there's a leak. That, or someone in your house needs some medical attention stat.

So go do some green super-sleuthing and see what you can find. Then we'll worry about how to fix them!

4 comments:

Robj98168 said...

No leaks here. BTW you can use any color food coloring (except yellow- that can look too much like comething else and if you have boys, you you might make that mistake!)or if you do not have food coloring some coffee would work too. Or you can put a couple of tea bags in the tank. You got brown water- you gotta leak! And fido got iced tea!

Burbanmom said...

Thanks for the great tips, Rob! Any chance you'd like to do some guest posting on plumber issues? You know, like how to fix the damn leaks? Plllleeeeeeeease? :-)

Robj98168 said...

Sure!

Crafty Green Poet said...

we had a super bad leaky toilet and finally replaced it - that was when we realised how difficult it is to find a decent plumber round here!

We have problems with one of our taps now though and I'll be hopefully back to read your solutions!