Nov 10 2008
Tips to Save Water in Your Home
Approximately 95% of all water leaks in the home are found in the toilet. There are two main places where this kind of water loss may occur.
The first is in the tank. If you look inside your toilet tank, you will see a hollow tube with water around it. This is the overflow tube, and if the tank fills too full, water will run over the top of this tube and down the drain. You can adjust the float arm lower so it shuts off the tank fill water at a lower level.
The second is the flapper at the bottom of the tank. This is the part that lifts when you flush and lets the tank water run into the bowl. You can test for a leak here by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank. Wait several minutes without flushing the toilet. Then check in the bowl. If you see any color in the bowl, then there is a leak at the flapper. Sometimes you can clean the contact edges of the flapper and the rim by wiping them with a soft cloth and restore a good contact. If that doesn’t stop the leak, you can replace the flapper or the whole flapper assembly.
Low-flow toilets use only 1.6 gallons of water per flush, and a regular tank toilet uses between 3.5 and 5 gallons per flush. The water savings with a low-flow for a family of three would average about 34 gallons per day JUST FROM FLUSHING!
It doesn’t matter if you live in an area where water is delivered from reservoirs that are long distances away, or if you are pulling your own water from your well, there just isn’t much reason to flush it down the toilet.
