[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by mixsonci

OK, Hoping one of you can help me figure this out or where to go for help.
I got my Utilities bill and it jumped to over $400 this month. $200 is for the Irrigation base which is usually only about $20. I called the utilities customer service and they told me it is a true reading. I had Massey come out and inspect my system and there are no leaks and all my sprinklers are working fine. The system is set on 2 days a week, 25 minutes each zone (4 zones) and only set on Program A, Program B is off. Massey could not figure out what the problem is. Any suggestions? I called Jim Baumgartner who is coming out on Wednesday, but if Massey couldn't find anything and they checked really carefully, I doubt Jim will have any better luck.

Oh my gosh, that's basicly junk water. I really feel for you, that's an asinine response from the utilities company & you would think since Massey said it was alright the utiility company would be sending their best inspector out to check this out for you pronto. Well I can tell you one thing if it were me there's no way I would be paying anywhere near that much, I would be MOVING OUT OF THE VILLAGES! Really, water is very expensive the way it is. For one thing I don't understand why & I know everyone in The Villages has this problem. I bet everyone that lives here has to waste over a gal. of water everytime they want to get hot water. MIXSONCI, if this is going to be a ongoing bill because the Utility company doesnt' think it's their problem. I would tell the warranty dept. "I'm out of here". Or you can bite the bullet & see if it's going to be an ongoing issue. Good luck MIXSONCI & I do feel for you!

[cfhelz45]

Originally Posted by outlaw

How many gallons did your bill indicate was used? A zone will have up to 6 rotator heads with about 3 gallons per minute nozzles, 75 gallons per rotator per 25 minutes cycle, 150 gallons per week per rotator, 600 gallons per month times 24 rotators equals 14,400 gallons of water.

I arrived here 10/22/15. My water was off. I received a bill for 10,000 gallons. After 6 weeks they determined the meter was misread. I received a refund. This was water in my home not irrigation.

[atmcgov]

Dear Villager,
We are new to the Villages this past year. We too have had an enormous bill without any warning. Most utility companies will post a note at your door or contact you if they see a dramatic increase. After we CONTACTED THEM...We met them and they read the meter again. The reading was off but not to explain the issue. We have spoken with our neighbors and this has happened to them as well periodically. It seems to be a repetitive theme. We had our irrigation checked, the pipes...nothing explains why we received such a bill. The previous owners had to have the front yard dug up. It appears this is more than an isolated incident.

[Walter123]

Originally Posted by willbush

If you have the water sensor on, put it on bypass (bypass the sensor). I have done this with several neighbors when their sprinklers started running for 50 mins instead of 20 mins. The sensors often fails (most are faulty). Most on our street have it on bypass due to the many problems. I disconnected mine because it was tied to zone 5 and it want bad and if it fails then that zone won't work. Good luck.

That doesn't really make sense to me. When the sensor is working correctly it completes the circuit. When it fails or, it detects rain, the circuit opens thereby shutting down the system. If it fails and the circuit stays closed, the system will run the same as you programmed it. When you run in bypass mode, the circuit is closed regardless of what the sensor thinks so the system will run as it is programmed.

[Peddler3500]

I received a call from water dept regarding an unusual amt of water being used. Turns out there was a puncture in the line caused by a tree I cant remove. Meter showed more than 40,000 gallons used and my bill was less than yours. Truly makes no sense.

[raynitsche]

With all this I have a question. I had my system to water one day at 4AM for 30 minutes at each of six zones. Just had Jim B here this weekend and he set for three times at 30 minutes each due to dry season. What do you set at? Plus I thought all my heads were good. Jim showed me how wrong I was. Great guy and a pleasure to deal with but walks and works at 20 MPH. HE'll find your problem.

[THUNDERCHIEF]

Originally Posted by outlaw

how many gallons did your bill indicate was used? A zone will have up to 6 rotator heads with about 3 gallons per minute nozzles, 75 gallons per rotator per 25 minutes cycle, 150 gallons per week per rotator, 600 gallons per month times 24 rotators equals 14,400 gallons of water.

my system is set for 12 minutes/ twice per week now, when it gets real warm i go to 12 minutes 3 times per week. Our lawn is beautiful. You are watering way too much at 25 minutes. Also i disconnected the wire that automatically increases your watering time settings. I control how long to water. My rain sensor is still connected. Cut back your minutes to 12 or 15 at the most. We also water at 2 oclock in the morning.
Good luck

[Phanatic Luvr]

Originally Posted by raynitsche

With all this I have a question. I had my system to water one day at 4AM for 30 minutes at each of six zones. Just had Jim B here this weekend and he set for three times at 30 minutes each due to dry season. What do you set at? Plus I thought all my heads were good. Jim showed me how wrong I was. Great guy and a pleasure to deal with but walks and works at 20 MPH. HE'll find your problem.

Not sure what type of home you have and how many zones but general rule of thumb is ... plants 15 minutes, lawn sprays 30 minutes and rotors 50 minutes, 2 times per week. If there are dry conditions, I usually set mine at 3 times per week but reduce the times a bit. With that said, some homes which are very close may not need their sides and backs on for 30 minutes if their neighbors water reaches their yards as well. Every homesite is different.

[photo1902]

Originally Posted by THUNDERCHIEF

my system is set for 12 minutes/ twice per week now, when it gets real warm i go to 12 minutes 3 times per week. Our lawn is beautiful. You are watering way too much at 25 minutes. Also i disconnected the wire that automatically increases your watering time settings. I control how long to water. My rain sensor is still connected. Cut back your minutes to 12 or 15 at the most. We also water at 2 oclock in the morning.
Good luck

It all depends on the size of your lot. Bigger lots require a rotor setting of 40 minutes, twice a week during the dry hot spells.

[Chasam75]

Originally Posted by mixsonci

OK, Hoping one of you can help me figure this out or where to go for help.
I got my Utilities bill and it jumped to over $400 this month. $200 is for the Irrigation base which is usually only about $20. I called the utilities customer service and they told me it is a true reading. I had Massey come out and inspect my system and there are no leaks and all my sprinklers are working fine. The system is set on 2 days a week, 25 minutes each zone (4 zones) and only set on Program A, Program B is off. Massey could not figure out what the problem is. Any suggestions? I called Jim Baumgartner who is coming out on Wednesday, but if Massey couldn't find anything and they checked really carefully, I doubt Jim will have any better luck.

I would recommend that you check with your Irrigation System Manufacturer to determine how much water you should be using based on your number of zones and heads per zone, plus your run time per day and week. I know that I can calculate what our water consumption should be by making some calculations so that when we are back up north, I know approximately how many gallons of water we should be using - i.e., 3 zones x 20 mins. per zone x 2 times per week x 9 gals. per minute and 4.33 weeks in a month. For us, that equates to approximately 4,680 gals. per month just for our Irrigation System. But talk to your Manufacturer or go on-line to do so, and make sure you don't have any water leaks too!

[mixsonci]

OK, I think I found the problem, but don't know how to fix it, hopefully Jim can on Wednesday. RJM and Dirtbanker you are closest to the problem.
I set my sprinklers Zone 1 to go on at 6:30 for 40 min, I set zone 2 to go on at 7:00 for 25 minutes, however Zone 2 wowuldn't start until Zone 1 finished its 40 min run. Zone 2 then came on and went through its full 25 min cycle. The other 2 zones followed suit and all 4 zones finished their cycles with no problem. I watch each cycle and everything was working with no problem, However, when Zone 4 finished, Zone 1 started the cycle all over again. At that point, I turned the system off. BTW, only Program A is set to on, B and C are off.

[rjm1cc]

I think you only need a start time for zone 1. The other start times should be removed. When zone one comes on the others will follow as long as they are in program A.

Thanks for letting us know. I think your problem is very common so this should help a lot of new owners.

[Steve & Deanna]

We had the same problem last year and to top it off, we were up north at the time. The person that does our lawn mentioned nothing and the person that watches our house said nothing and attempted to reset the irrigation system (Hunter). Also, the person I contacted at VCDD could have cared less but someone was sent out to check the meter....twice. Our back yard, according to a neighbor, was flooded at times. We ended up having five sprinkler heads replaced and the system re programmed. That ended our problem.

[linda125]

Hi,
Just my two cents!
Living in the old section we had a similar problem with high water usage while we were away for the winter that was not discovered for two months.
Turns out it was the result of 3 foot piece of grey pipe that was overlooked and not replaced.
Just a small leak but you can probably guess the result.

From this thread it sounds like it could be a bum water meter thing or even a missing head damaged by grass cutting.
I hope that's all.
Good luck.

[mixsonci]

The problem was I had each Zone set for a different time, when I should have only had Zone 1 set for a start time. So basically, my sprinklers were making 4 complete cycles every time, probably running somewhere around 6 hours both days. Since I had them set for 1:00 a.m. I never noticed it.