Do You Have A Sneaky Leaker?

A what? Sneaky leaker?! I thought I had plenty of things to worry about in my day-to-day life, however then I saw an ad showing a toilet and asking me if I had a sneaky leaker.

Considering that a toilet is an ordinary household item, and I am an Ordinary Environmentalist, I thought I better take a closer look at the ad to see what this was all about.

It turns out that a toilet that is running without your knowledge can waste more than 100 gallons of water per day. I had to think about how to put that in context. The average household water heater is around 50 gallons. That means one sneaky leaker wastes two water heater tanks worth of water every day - or 730 water heater tanks (36,500 gallons) in a year.

A quick calculation of water costs, based on my city's website, showed that one sneaky leaker could cost me $133 per year. I could buy a nice spa treatment for that kind of money! 

Oh dear... but how would I know if I had a sneaky leaker? Fortunately, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency offers little dye tablets for FREE. You just pop one in your toilet tank and research spa packages while you wait. After an hour, if the toilet bowl water has turned blue you have a sneaky leaker.

If you are like me, you have no idea how to fix a toilet. Finding a handy friend with tools is a good option, or you can go on their website and find all kinds of videos and information on how to fix sneaky leakers.  The good news for me was that I didn't have a sneaky leaker... but then again, now I need to find a new reason to justify an afternoon at the spa!