Down the Drain, Part 3

Continued from Down the Drain, Part 2...

While I did have a new toilet flapper on hand (heck, I'd been telling myself for months that I really ought to install the bloody thing), I didn't have a chance to fix the toilet part of the "leak" problem the next day, because I had to work (being only semi-retired). When I got home from the office, there was a hang tag on my front door verifying that someone from Public Utilities had come by to check the water meter, and sure 'nuff, found no water flow at that time. Well, that was to be expected, since by now I had shut off the hose in the back yard, and it was unlikely that the toilet would decide to refill precisely at the time he was checking the meter.

I wasn't in the mood for even minor plumbing repairs that evening, but the next morning I dug the new flapper valve out of the cupboard, shut off the water valve to the toilet, and flushed to empty out the tank. Then I unclipped the old flapper from its supports, unhooked the chain from the flush handle, and installed the new one. Easy, I've done this before. After taking up some slsck in the chain, I turned the water back on and waited for the tank to fill and shut off.

It filled. It didn't shut off. It came up to the top of the overflow tube and started overflowing. I tapped on the fill valve. I moved the float up and down manually. I pulled up on the lever. The water just kept (over)flowing. I had fixed a problem in one part of the toilet's innards, only to have another part give up the ghost. Just one damned thing...

I sighed, shut off the water supply valve, and flushed to empty the tank again. I had not fixed a fill valve before. I went hunting for my copy of the ever-useful Black & Decker Complete Guide to Home Plumbing. B&D informed me that I needed to remove the fill valve cap and, at the least, replace a rubber seal inside it. If that didn't do the trick, I would need to replace the entire fill cap. And as a last resort, I could replace the entire fill valve mechanism. I hoped the "last resort" would prove unnecessary. I have this aversion to unsealing an opening in the toilet tank, that will then have to be resealed. I have seen too many such endeavors end rather unsatisfactorily and wetly. My approach to plumbing is to go for the most minimally invasive procedure possible.

But in any case, I needed, at minimum, a new rubber seal, and maybe a replacement fill cap. I refused to contemplate needing more than that. Following the instructions in my Complete Guide, I removed the fill cap, dug out the old seal, and headed off to my friendly orange big box home improvement store. Checking out the plumbing repair section I found the exact FluidMaster replacement seal I needed. For good measure, I also picked up a replacement fill cap.

Back home, I flushed out the fill system and installed the new rubber seal, followed by the old fill cap. Once more turning on the water supply valve, I crossed my fingers and let the toilet fill. It filled to about an inch from the top of the overflow tube... and shut off. I flushed and let it refill. It shut off again. Success! It looks like I won't be needing that replacement fill cap. Not yet, anyway. I'm not returning it. If I have it, maybe I won't need it.

Epilog

That was a little over three weeks ago. Since then (knock on wood), the toilet has not refilled on its own, nor has the fill valve failed to shut off. I called the Public Utilities service rep back the same day and reported that the toilet leak was fixed and he said he would put in for an adjustment on my water bill, which would automatically carry over to an adjustment on the wastewater treatment bill.

I got my adjusted bills this week, and I have to say they're rather disappointing. In all, they took only $21.44 off the water bill and 26.81 off the treatment bill. That still leaves both bills considerably more than usual. But I suppose, considering that the overage was really due almost entirely to the outside water tap being left on rather than an actual leak, I have to consider myself lucky to get any adjustment at all.

And looking at the weather we've had here over the past week – including several inches of snow and temperatures in the 5-25 degree range – it's a good thing I discovered that running tap when I did, or my back yard would have been a good imitation of an ice rink.

Down the Drain, Part 2

Continued from Down the Drain...

As I squelched back from the now-shut-off hose bib through my sodden back yard, the principle question running through my head – well, two questions, actually – was simple:

How long had the damned thing been running?!?
And, just as important:
Who had left it running?

Look, I'm not a "yard work" person. I use that hose mainly for watering the plants in the back yard during the hot weather. I planted several small trees and shrubs back there this year, so I had been giving them a good drink whenever I remembered to, in hopes they would survive the hideous summer heat. But I don't think I had had to water anything since at least September. And since the September and November bills had been normal, clearly I hadn't left it running since then!

Besides, the last time I was out there was in November, when I took the weed whacker to my overgrown hayfield grass. (I told you, I'm not a yard work person. And no one can see the grass in the fenced back yard. So it gets a little out of hand.) Believe me, I'd have noticed the squelchiness if the hose had been running. So it wasn't me that left the hose on.

OK, the A/C service man came November 30 for my semi-annual heat pump maintenance. (That's the only reason I was out there scything down the hay cutting the grass in November, for heavens sake.) He usually uses the hose to flush crap out of the compressor enclosure. Could he have left it running? I didn't believe it. 1: He's very conscientious about cleaning up after himself. 2: The hose end was nowhere near the compressor, which is right beside the hose bib. And 3: Considering that 300 cubic feet of water had pumped out in only five days, I calculated the bill would have been for at least 2400 cubic feet, not the 1700 it was. So it wasn't the A/C man.

Who else had been in my back yard? No one that I knew of. No one that should have been there. I did recall noticing one day, some time well after the A/C man's visit, that the gate into my back yard was standing open. I remember at the time thinking vaguely that the A/C man must have left it open... but surely I had checked it after he left? Well, I closed and latched it and forgot about it.

And then I remembered the plumbing incident caused by the cable company at my next-door neighbor's, and suddenly it all fell into place.

I would lay odds that someone involved in this incident went into my back yard to get some water – maybe the cable guys wanted to wash the mud off their hands or equipment, or maybe the plumber or my neighbor needed a source of running water before the line was fixed – then left the hose running and the gate open. Since roughly the first of the year. Which, interestingly enough, would result in just the excess water usage I would expect based on that "300 cubic feet in 5 days" logged on the new meter.

I called the customer service rep back and told him what I had found. He still wanted me to replace the toilet flapper, since it really was a known problem (albeit a pretty minor one), and, oh, by the way, they don't normally make billing adjustments just because someone left a tap on, so I really needed to fix that leaky toilet. I got the message.

To be continued...