"Richard Wright" wrote in message
...
Interesting story, Sue. Others also suggested I look for leaks
(actually we couldn't duplicate your actual event because there are
virtually no dissolved salts in Sydney water). Found no leaks. Checked
that the readings on the meter were correctly read and they were.
Australian Consumers' Association said they had nothing on file. On my
calculations it is as if we went away for two days and left a tap full
on - which we didn't. Hope it remains a once-off mystery.

Being so dry in sydney the wet area from a leaky pipe would have been easy
to find i think. Just check ALL areas visible.
Don't overlook other areas. Toilet leaking, release valve on hot water
system stuck open. The latter can especially get people by suprise, esp if
outlet goes into drain in some obslete part of garden, so check that.
Simple thing to do is if you have a tap at your hot water heater for the
inlet water, turn it off. Turn off the toilet tap, and go to water meter,
With everything off, bar the meter, it should not be ticking over. If it is,
there is a leak.
If not ticking go inside and turn on toilet tap. Go back out and check.
Providing toilet wasn't flushed during the time the tap was off, the water
meter should be quiet. If not, then toilet may be leaking.
Now try hot water sys, same as toilet. Now some water may top up system when
you turn tap on, but shouldn't last more than couple of minutes. If it does
keep going, then the outlet in system could be leaking.
Warning. Don't forget to turn hot water sys tap back on, OR leave it off for
a while. If the level drops and doesn't get topped back up due to a tap not
turned back on, the element will blow. Like switching a jug on with no water
in it.
Good luck.
Oh, and if all is good, then suspect neighbours taking water when/if you go
away even to work.
On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 00:19:14 GMT, "Sue"
wrote:

Not quite Sydney but with regard to leaky pipes. We live in Karratha WA
so
have to water year round. Recently we were changed from the Millstream
(high calcium deposit) water supply to the Harding Dam which has a brand
new, state of the art filtration system. Yippee no more white calcium
marks everywhere.

Get to the point :-)

All of our reticulation (solenoids - I believe they are called) started
leaking badly, not to mention the main (poly) pipe joins running into the
house!!! Something to do with the deposits washing out I think. Anyway,
fortunately we noticed one leak and then a second and decided to get
digging
and do a full inspection. Our water bill will be astronomical now but
imagine if we hadn't noticed!!! So do check for leaks - we thought
there
couldn't be anything wrong with our 18 month old system.

Rambled a bit sorry -
Sue - Karratha WA.