Talk of The Villages Florida
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Talk of The Villages Florida (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/)
-   The Villages, Florida, General Discussion (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/)
-   -   Ideals about astounding water bill increase ? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/ideals-about-astounding-water-bill-increase-325671/)

christine J Toft 10-28-2021 08:23 AM
I know for a fact that they have had to replace meters. Happened to my family here in the Villages.

snsaneholtz@gmail.com 10-28-2021 08:38 AM
Something is wrong with water charges
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs (Post 2021954)
Stumped on what to do/check next. Sorry about Title above, meant to type "Ideas", not "Ideals"... LOL. Here's the summary

. current water bill (not irrigation portion) showed 5 times the usage of the last 26 months of bills
. of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon
. sewer usage was also a shocking amount of course
. started with checking toilets for constant running (no malfunctions)
. went on to all sinks, laundry included, bath, showers, etc. (no drips)
. checked under cabinets, outside hose connection, garage, everything we knew of connected to water use, no signs of dampness, nothing !
. finally called plumber who was the sub on building our home since he knew it and we have the original building specs
. he did a visual only (didn't run actual tests through all pipe in the walls since he said usage of that magnitude into the dry wall would show some signs of what was going on) and didn't charge us as he saw no signs of a possible reason

Where do we go from here ? Called to see if Village water department ever had an error when they read the meter, or had to replace a faulty meter. Lady said "NEVER, I can assure you you need to find the leak in your home", so end of that conversation. What to do ?
My friend and I both have homes in the villages and we are both up north for the summer.
We both have been notified that are water usage is 5 or 6 times normal usage.
I have had both inside and outside areas checked for leaks and nothing has been found.
Something is WRONG!!! How can so many of us have the same problem?????

pgettinger01 10-28-2021 08:40 AM
Maybe you have a broken sprinkler head, toilet running... The water has two line items for house, and sprinkler. Which part of the water bill increased?

Edcarney 10-28-2021 09:04 AM
Same issue
 
I have had the same issue as you. I did all the things you did and got the same answer.
I started checking my water meter myself. This last month it was accurate. However, one month my bill was 39,000 gallons at a home that had no occupants for 25 out of 30 days. Bottom line—-I have no clue regarding this issue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs (Post 2021954)
Stumped on what to do/check next. Sorry about Title above, meant to type "Ideas", not "Ideals"... LOL. Here's the summary

. current water bill (not irrigation portion) showed 5 times the usage of the last 26 months of bills
. of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon
. sewer usage was also a shocking amount of course
. started with checking toilets for constant running (no malfunctions)
. went on to all sinks, laundry included, bath, showers, etc. (no drips)
. checked under cabinets, outside hose connection, garage, everything we knew of connected to water use, no signs of dampness, nothing !
. finally called plumber who was the sub on building our home since he knew it and we have the original building specs
. he did a visual only (didn't run actual tests through all pipe in the walls since he said usage of that magnitude into the dry wall would show some signs of what was going on) and didn't charge us as he saw no signs of a possible reason

Where do we go from here ? Called to see if Village water department ever had an error when they read the meter, or had to replace a faulty meter. Lady said "NEVER, I can assure you you need to find the leak in your home", so end of that conversation. What to do ?

MollyJo 10-28-2021 09:16 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Road-Runner (Post 2022037)
"of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon" that makes me strongly believe no one has been reading your meter all this time and when they finally did you had used more water than you've been paying for. Heard of this happening before, curious what your next bill will be, probably closer to your average bill.
Would the water bills say ‘estimated’?

Kathryn Putt 10-28-2021 10:00 AM
We had an extremely high water bill 2 months ago. After having the sprinkler system checked & no problems found, no leakage with sinks or toilets, and the water department checking the meter with no problems found there, we also are at a total loss. What could be the reason/answer for all these high bills?!?!

BFISHER54 10-28-2021 10:11 AM
If the flapper or gasket (depending on the toilet model) is bad it may run only intermittently. You need to be there when it does to hear it. Could be once an hour or more often. I’ve had to replace the gasket twice in two years. Easy and cheap fix.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs (Post 2021954)
Stumped on what to do/check next. Sorry about Title above, meant to type "Ideas", not "Ideals"... LOL. Here's the summary

. current water bill (not irrigation portion) showed 5 times the usage of the last 26 months of bills
. of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon
. sewer usage was also a shocking amount of course
. started with checking toilets for constant running (no malfunctions)
. went on to all sinks, laundry included, bath, showers, etc. (no drips)
. checked under cabinets, outside hose connection, garage, everything we knew of connected to water use, no signs of dampness, nothing !
. finally called plumber who was the sub on building our home since he knew it and we have the original building specs
. he did a visual only (didn't run actual tests through all pipe in the walls since he said usage of that magnitude into the dry wall would show some signs of what was going on) and didn't charge us as he saw no signs of a possible reason

Where do we go from here ? Called to see if Village water department ever had an error when they read the meter, or had to replace a faulty meter. Lady said "NEVER, I can assure you you need to find the leak in your home", so end of that conversation. What to do ?

Wyseguy 10-28-2021 10:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Road-Runner (Post 2022037)
"of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon" that makes me strongly believe no one has been reading your meter all this time and when they finally did you had used more water than you've been paying for. Heard of this happening before, curious what your next bill will be, probably closer to your average bill.
I agree. If your bills never varied than I would propose they were estimate billing you. They have now actually read it, and gotten the ACTUAL current reading. Keep in mind, the excessive use that this bill shows would be the accumulation of all of those months that they had been estimate billing, not just for the current month. Start Jan 1 at 100. They estimate you use 10 per month, so for Feb thru Sept they bill 10 gal each month. They read the actual meter now, and it would show the extra ten gallonsfor each month.

bjalt 10-28-2021 11:05 AM
I had similar problems. Called in a plumber to test for leaks with no success. Then bought one of these:

Amazon.com

It monitors water flow as small as 1/100th gallon per min. Using the data generated by the Flume I pinpointed the leak in less than 24 hours. Problem now gone.

Fltpkr 10-28-2021 11:09 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by walterray1 (Post 2022148)
We do and had a similar issue. Turns out the auto refill was stuck and continually running which caused a very high water bill. Replaced it and eliminated the problem.
Auto refill? Are you referring to a toilet tank water valve or something else?

retiredguy123 10-28-2021 12:30 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BFISHER54 (Post 2022585)
If the flapper or gasket (depending on the toilet model) is bad it may run only intermittently. You need to be there when it does to hear it. Could be once an hour or more often. I’ve had to replace the gasket twice in two years. Easy and cheap fix.
It's not always the flapper or gasket. A leaky fill valve will cause the same issue. The fill valve is located on the left side of the tank and adds water to the tank through the black rubber hose. If the valve has a slow leak, the tank water will overflow into the overflow pipe and the flapper/gasket will open for a short time.

joelfmi 10-28-2021 05:24 PM
penny-wise DOLAR FOOLISH
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pairadocs (Post 2021954)
Stumped on what to do/check next. Sorry about Title above, meant to type "Ideas", not "Ideals"... LOL. Here's the summary

. current water bill (not irrigation portion) showed 5 times the usage of the last 26 months of bills
. of those bills, the usage never varied by even a few gallon
. sewer usage was also a shocking amount of course
. started with checking toilets for constant running (no malfunctions)
. went on to all sinks, laundry included, bath, showers, etc. (no drips)
. checked under cabinets, outside hose connection, garage, everything we knew of connected to water use, no signs of dampness, nothing !
. finally called plumber who was the sub on building our home since he knew it and we have the original building specs
. he did a visual only (didn't run actual tests through all pipe in the walls since he said usage of that magnitude into the dry wall would show some signs of what was going on) and didn't charge us as he saw no signs of a possible reason

Where do we go from here ? Called to see if Village water department ever had an error when they read the meter, or had to replace a faulty meter. Lady said "NEVER, I can assure you you need to find the leak in your home", so end of that conversation. What to do ?
my SELF BEING A MASTER SINCE YOU DID THE OVIOUS CHECK AND FOUNG NO LEAKING HIRE A LICENSED PLUMBER WITH AQUA PHONE GO ALL OVER YOUR PROPERTY WITH THIS DEVICE. THEIR ARE SOMETHINGS A DO IT SELF CANNOT DO THIS IS ONE OF THEM.

fdpaq0580 10-28-2021 05:59 PM
Good advice, but...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelfmi (Post 2022797)
my SELF BEING A MASTER SINCE YOU DID THE OVIOUS CHECK AND FOUNG NO LEAKING HIRE A LICENSED PLUMBER WITH AQUA PHONE GO ALL OVER YOUR PROPERTY WITH THIS DEVICE. THEIR ARE SOMETHINGS A DO IT SELF CANNOT DO THIS IS ONE OF THEM.
This is good advice, but in the great majority of these cases the problem never reoccurs, causing me to believe that since no evidence of a problem is found home side of the meter the problem must lie on the supply side. That could be most anything from a meter that "slipped a gear" to data transfer reading error. And for you conspiracy enthusiasts, random induced error designed to bilk hundreds of thousands of dollars from random clients who never had a problem before and may never experience another. The very strong denial of ever having to replace a meter or ever having glitches of any kind on the supply would lend itself to that story line in a book.
One thing is sure, many of us have had the gigantic bill and others will have them in the future. And, the supplier will always deny that a problem or error could ever happen and they won't even bother to check.

Pairadocs 10-28-2021 09:48 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by OpusX1 (Post 2021955)
Turn all the water off. Check the meter if it’s running you have a leak. If it’s not turning the meter may be bad.
Thank you, will do that ! Kind of surprised the plumber didn't do that... but, maybe he did and that's why he said we might want to call the water company, but that was kind of a dead end, they said the meters are never "faulty", so that was that conversation ! Forgive the "dumb" question, but, is the "meter" the flat, black, metal disk in the yard on the lot line ? There is nothing like a meter in the garage where the main value is located and the plumber shut off all water. Meter on side of house appears to be electric.

Pairadocs 10-28-2021 10:04 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bugface (Post 2022040)
We are also stumped and would like to know how many others have had similar issues, especially with the new smart-meters they have been using over past couple years.
Our experience: We turn our water off before heading north for summer and bills show zero usage for summer. Last month our reading showed 60,000 gal (non-irrigation) usage for the month even though water was still off (we have used only 13,000 gal TOTAL since we purchased year and a half ago)!! Just returned….no signs of water or leakage anywhere. Turned water back on, everything working fine. Was told when called water district “we haven’t had a single one of our smart meters fail.” Still trying to deal with them but without much luck. Thinking they get many, many calls since have been on hold for long periods….
Good luck with resolving your issue!
Yes, we are also thinking something is really wrong here, especially how the villages water dept. lady was so .... seemed almost "defensive" and that concerned me because I was VERY careful not to insinuate in any way it was their "faulty", I simply told her what we had done and asked if someone could suggest next steps... and asked HOW I could schedule someone to check that the meter was calibrated corrected, and she immediately let me know there was no way there could be anything wrong with it and they don't need to be "checked" ! ! It was clear she did not want to give me any direction... !


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