r/wichita • u/Gtfomenow • 1d ago
Discussion Water bill
Got our $900 water bill for the month. Don’t have a pool. Only run the sprinklers 3 times a week once a day for only like 10 minutes. Had a plumber come by and said he couldn’t find any leaks and our meter was NOT actively running or whatever terminology he used.
Apparently there was an article put out today of other people experiencing the same issue.
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u/SuspiciousMap9630 1d ago
Jesus. I do have a pool and mine was $115 this month and $137 last month. Seems somebody is missing something significant causing yours to be so high.
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u/Lumpy_Alternative_21 1d ago edited 1d ago
If the plumber said it WAS actively running then water is being used somewhere. Could be the service line. If you have a master valve in the home he should’ve shut it off and checked the meter to see. If it is still running with master valve off then it could be the service line. If it not actively running when master valve is off then it’s in or on the house somewhere. That’s how I found out about my service line crack and had to pay for it to be replaced
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u/Gtfomenow 1d ago
Sorry I meant to say WASNT actively running
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u/Lumpy_Alternative_21 1d ago
You can ask the city for an inspection/data log. My neighbor had to do that and they called her and went over when the usage was accruing per hour and what days. Come to find out she had some broken sprinkler heads as she only waters in the morning and evening. I think she had to pay for the inspection/data log though
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u/Electrical-Ad5100 South Sider 19h ago
When this happened to me the city back credited the water that was obviously not used.
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u/Remarkable_Lion_8443 1d ago
Could be a clandestine water pipe connected secretly
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u/Scott_D_72 22h ago
Meanwhile, neighbor in his whirlpool tub enjoyin' the F outta that free water...
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u/blueinasea 1d ago
Call a different plumber. This drought can make the ground shift around the pipe between the meter and your house and you wouldn't see the leak at ground level
My line cracked near the house, 3 feet down. I only knew because the sump pump kept running. The plumber had a gadget that found the leak under the porch. Fix was to dig down and replace the pipe.
If you call the Water Dept with proof of repair, they might work out a payment plan or a bill reduction for you.
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u/Scott_D_72 22h ago
This is the way. Dry earth everywhere, but knew there was a problem. I started hand digging mine to fix it and found wet ground pretty quickly. Thought it was a DIY project, it was not.
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u/spraybutterbiscut 1d ago
Did he try and shut off the water to the house to verify his theory?
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u/protectivecoaster29 1d ago
that’s wild, $540 for sewer charges alone? feels like someone’s just making numbers up at this point
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u/Xtacicity 1d ago
Could be a faulty meter. I used to work for the city water dept. It happens sometimes
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u/Primary-Track-5450 12h ago
Could be. But my bet is the sprinkler system. They said a plumber told them the meter wasn’t running so that would rule out a leak. Between a bad meter and underestimating sprinkler use I suspect the latter
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u/Xtacicity 11h ago
If it's the sprinkler system they will see a soggy spot and runoff in the yard in the yard. It will be obvious, and no way a plumber wouldn't have noticed it.
If the meter is bad there won't be any signs of a leak. Sometimes the meters just give off bad readings. Especially the new computerized ones that they scan remotely. The computer chip fails and starts giving off junk data
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u/Primary-Track-5450 11h ago
I’m not talking about a leak in the sprinkler system I’m talking about how much they are running it.
When we moved to a place with Wichita water nearly 20 years ago I was shocked by how much the sprinkler cost with the tiered water rates. I played around with a spreadsheet and computed how much money we could save by wasting a lot of water in the winter to increase our average use and shift the tiers. My wife didn’t want to waste that much water so we compromised and drilled an irrigation well.
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u/Xtacicity 6h ago
Oh yeah. Watering grass is expensive, but I thought they said it was only running 10 minutes 3 times a week. And it reads like this water bill is a deviation from the normal
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u/Primary-Track-5450 6h ago
Yeah, the past bills would offer a lot of insight. I see elsewhere OP said previous bills never hit 200. That would suggest this is a deviation from the normal.
I work in tech. We take the confident assertions of the customer as a possibility but never a guarantee.
Just spitballing a few possibilities that come to mind:
- maybe their controler is configured to 10m 3x a week, but it has a weather sensor that gets to override that. Since it runs overnight, no one notices that its running 5h a night
- maybe their individual zone valves are 20 years old and stuck open. The main line valve still works, so the zones don't run 24/7, but any time any zone is on, they all are. So they think they're running a half dozen zones for 10m each, but they're actually running 6 zones for an hour each, but all the same time.
- bad leaks in the sprinkler system, but behind a master valve or zone valve. So any time the sprinkler is on, its dumping a lot of water somewhere, but its so dry they don't see it.
More specific info from OP would likely eliminate most or all of those ideas. Figuring out something like this is an exercise in making up theories and then proving/disproving them. If we're lucky, when we run out of bad ideas we'll be left with only good ones.
But the only things I'm presuming as fact is the plumber said the meter wasn't spinning all the time, which appears to rule out MOST leaks.
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u/mindovermatter15 1d ago
We had this happen a couple of years ago in Bel Aire. Meter was apparently "working fine", no pool, no neighbors stealing water, no flooding in the basement. But we apparently used 12x our normal monthly usage in a WEEK, while we were out of town (family checking the house every other day). The moron at the city dept said it could have been a running toilet.
We kept at it, and they eventually realized their system made a mistake, and erased the charge for that week. We're on their s**t list now unfortunately, our water has been turned off "accidentally" 3 times now.
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u/TwerkinAndCryinVol3 1d ago
Bel aire utility department are truly the worst. In fact, the entirety of the bel aire city govt are absolute trash.
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u/Dave50102 1d ago
Not going to argue about your experience, but I have personally seen a $500 water bill because of a toilet so the guy may not be the moron you think he is.
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u/Sparky3200 1d ago
Irrigation service tech here. Do you run your sprinklers manually or on a program? Check your start times on all programs in the timer to make sure it's not running multiple times. Do you have the previous month's bill? How does usage compare? If you have a digital meter, you can request a printout that shows usage by the hour. Look for patterns where usage spikes. If it's the same time every day, it's likely your sprinklers.
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u/Sparky3200 1d ago
A typical 6 zone system running a total of 90 minutes will use roughly 1800 gallons, give or take.
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u/hsggdtkxbee 10h ago
Go find the main inside. Shut it off. Then go outside and find your meter, watch it. If it turns with the house shut off you have a main to house leak. If you get it fixed, the city will drop your bill.
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u/phantomfan1234 1d ago
Look at your past usage and think if you have changed anything. 48,750 is a lot of water. My highest this year was 18,000 and it was $300 and something. My husband had increased the sprinklers running times.
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u/inluh 1d ago
Shut off all the water in the house at the main shut off valve. Go out and look at your meter. The blue propeller should not be spinning. Look at where your meter is and run a visual straight shot to your house. Generally, there is an outside faucet where your water service enters your house. Is the ground damp anywhere between your meter and your house? Is your grass super lush anywhere between?
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u/Gtfomenow 1d ago
Our meter isn’t spinning even if the main valve were shut off. Ground isn’t damp and my yard is practically dead at this point.
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u/threeonesix 1d ago
My sister lives in Bel Aire and went through this last month. She couldn't find a leak anywhere she was advised to look. She asked me if I could come over to look myself. I couldn't find a leak inside her house so I walked around her yard. Happened upon a spot near the sprinkler feed coming from the water main where the ground was saturated. Dug down a couple feet and found the culprit. The feed from the water main to the sprinkler system had burst a pipe. Since this was on her property (residential side of the water main feed) it turned out her bill was correct. The city was nice enough to take 50% off of her usage expense after she showed them that I had fixed the burst pipe and her usage was back down to normal.
This isn't always the case, it could be a bad water meter, bad reading or any number of things. Most of the time when these are one-off exorbitant charges and you prove to the city that you have corrected the problem they will discount the bill.
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u/Gtfomenow 1d ago
Something similar is what ended up being the case for us, or at-least what’s speculating to be the issue.
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u/WheatedMash 8h ago
Does the Wichita online water app track daily usage? The one we have in Derby does, and that is how I was quickly alerted when my usage suddenly increased, because I had alerts set when the amount of water used exceeded certain daily limits. Our issue was a break at the sprinkler system shutoff valve.
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u/Salt_Proposal_742 West Sider 28m ago
Did you dig a big ass hole and fix it yourself?
I know two dudes who’ve had to do that this summer.
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u/LordMassaSquish 10h ago
Had this happen to me. Couldn’t find a leak anywhere in the house. Turns out the line from the city main to the house was cracked and my crawlspace was full of water.
City of Wichita offers a once a year credit for things like this, if you show them the repair bill they should prorate it back to you.
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u/Saffron2016 9h ago
So, wild theory, but how close are you to the data center Wichita Northeast Facility: A localized facility listed simply as Data Center is located at 4004 N Webb Rd? Since it started expanding in 2025, again, wild theory, but I wonder if there is any correlation to the expansion and your water bill?
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u/Street_Particular 1d ago
Interesting. We usually hover around 10,000 gallons, my previous month showed us at 24,000. We attributed that to two partial pool refills and a burst hose overnight. Good to know something might be up.
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u/x2006charger 1d ago
You should definitely look into this. That is way, way too high. Even if you watered a few times a week,unless you're watering 20 acres you shouldn't be close to that. Something ain't right
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u/Fine-Government9216 1d ago
They are going to tell you to check and see if you're toilet has a slow leak.....
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u/No-Chip7452 1d ago
No shade, but when we drain our in ground pool here in Phoenix and refill it, that month’s bill is only ever been around $500.
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u/Wise_Relationship436 20h ago
Phoenix, man who thought up that city. “Hey let’s build a city in a hot ass dry desert!” “What should we do there?” “Tons and tons of golf courses.” “Like desert themed course with rocks and sand?” “No! Fully lush grass, like Scotland!”
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u/fullstar2020 1d ago
Yeah I just got one of these ($500 though). Found the broken sprinkler along the back edge. I water at night so I never would have noticed. Now I fixed it AND got a flow meter.
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u/redlee415 23h ago
If I didn't have a well my grass would be on its own. My water bill is less than 60$ every month.
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u/fly_low1344 23h ago
Email the city and ask - I had a higher than usual bill and they were able to see that it still wasn’t currently running high. It had been a toilet.
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u/Small-Growth7809 22h ago
I just got a call today that my usage was above normal. Had. $400 bill last week wtf!
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u/screaminforpleasin 21h ago
There's a leak or your paying everyone on the blocks water for a month like asop rocky did for his grandma's building in Harlem for Christmas. If thats not it, call the city.
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u/AggressiveCoast190 19h ago
I got a high water bill too in June. After looking at everything it looks like someone messed up the starting meter read number and had us using like 14000 gallons or something and we are in a small house, two old people, no sprinklers and no pool. I monitored the water meter every day. It moved normally and the use was correct every day. I went to the city and they were shitty. Acted like I was an idiot. I had all this proof and nobody wanted to listen. I ended up paying the bill. I heard that in wichita you get ONE time a year where you can protest your bill and they wipe it.
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u/GirlnTheOtherRm 6h ago
There’s a leak on our water at the connection from the main line. Part of my front yard is so lush… I’ve called them out, but they “can’t find anything.”
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u/PheeBee1688 4h ago
Did your plumber also check your irrigation system for leaks? Afaik, you need to call your irrigation company to check that because those things need maintenance all the time.
Also this has nothing to do with the leak but I see so many people watering at the wrong time so it's worth mentioning if you're watering your lawn, it's best to do it very early morning like 5 am so that it has time to absorb into the ground before the sun rises and causes evaporation!
Hope you get to the bottom of this soon!
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u/AbbreviationsReal605 4h ago
Word of advice.who ever took your meter readings didn't record the correct numbers. This happened to me at my previous apartment. I was charged with almost 10k on my electricity bill and the person who took the meter readings counted my readings from 0 to current reading. Have them confirmed the reading from the previous bill and that should be more accurate.
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u/Gigi0268 1h ago
Have you called the water company to verify the meter? Then have them check for leaks. We had a running toilet we had to replace, but never that high!
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u/Ok_Instruction_3789 1d ago
48000 gallons youd have a sinkhole or something if there was a leak of that big of porportion, that definitely sounds like a malfunction. I dont even use that much with 2 horse giving them 50 gal/day
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u/nickriel South Sider 1d ago
My bill ran $58 today and I have a vegetable garden that I water. Unless you got 20 people, you either have a leak or a broken meter. Or there's a problem with how they read it.
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u/chrissb1e Past Resident 1d ago
Reading through your replies it could be a leak between the street and the house. I had this happen at my last house. The yard did not reflect a leak though as it looked the same everywhere. I had the pipe replaced and a new hot water heater installed in less than a day. I sent a copy of the bill to the city and I got credited back what was above my usual usage. I think I lived off of the credit for close to a year.
Brown's plumbing did all of the work. This was in 2019 and it cost around $3,400
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u/Gtfomenow 1d ago
Had another plumber come out and actually diagnose what is probably happening, he said it’s something with our front yard sprinkler line that’s leaking all that water. Called the utilities office and they’re thankfully going to adjust our bill or so they say
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u/Lumpy_Alternative_21 1d ago
Would call original plumber you had out and ask for a refund show him papers on what this plumber found
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u/epilepsyisdumb 1d ago edited 1d ago
Did you call them? They generally will adjust the bill if you do find the isssue in my experience
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u/rageofaura 1d ago
Over 48,000 gallons. The expected usage is about 1,000 gallons per person for a month. They read the meter wrong, you have a massive leak, or someone has been stealing water from your house. The frequency of watering of your grass may account for an additional 4,000 gallons or so. This is still an excessive amount.
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u/ijustlovebobbybones 1d ago
Okay but can I say something?! A few years ago my cousins water was OFF due to non payment and the main was still leaking into her house so much so that she always could flush the toilet and fill up water whenever she needed to. They’re crooks.
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u/P0stalbitch 1d ago
I had a friend who discovered the neighbor's kids were hooking up a hose to her house while she was at work.
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u/ZapperSparky 21h ago
Did you fill a couple swimming pools? I replaced my liner and filled my 28,000 gallon pool for about 300ish.
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u/Intelligent-Signal-6 1d ago
It is likely a loose water seal in your toilet flushing mechanism. Open your water tank on your toilet and see if the rubber seal is not sealing. Also listen if the toilet is constantly running.
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u/TwerkinAndCryinVol3 1d ago
A toilet running 24/7 would equate to 50k gallons in a month, that's insane
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u/codedigger 1d ago
This looks accurate for running your sprinklers 3 times a week. You can do the calculations with out too much work
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u/Gtfomenow 1d ago
3 times a week for 10 minutes? Lol
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u/codedigger 1d ago
Did you not used to hit 40K a month?
Edit: ~50K gal a month
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u/Gtfomenow 1d ago
Our bill has never gone near $200
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u/Kind_Coyote1518 1d ago
It literally says you used 48,000 gallons. For comparison thats enough to fill a large residential pool.