Someone is stealing our water!

Originally posted by remembering
dumb question of the day.
Do you have a water softener?
They usually are stet for after midnight and use a bunch of water at that time.

Sorry but I don't even know what a water softener is.

Originally posted by foxhoundone
reply to post by 11andrew34

 

This seems to make the most sense to me anyways, 11andrew34.
But a truck cargo type would atract alot of curious looks especially at night with i presume a generater running the vacume pump,
If the OP can post a map or utility pipline diagram of the area this would help, There has to be a feeder coupling somwhere to aid with the thieft of the water.

The meter is located to the nearside of the house i presume, can you just not isolate with a stop cock ?

Yes. When I saw the black hose, there was no sound. Not even the sound of running water. It was utterly silent. For me, the cargo truck explanation is totally out of the question. I would try to draw a map of the pipeline and post it later.

Originally posted by karl 12

Originally posted by topquark

I went online to look for an explanation and the only mysterious entities who are known to "steal" water are UFOs. I found also to my surprise that there have been other sightings of the mysterious black hose connected to UFOs that seem to be stealing water.

Topquark, don't know if it's happening in your specific case but you're not wrong about the numerous global reports of UFOs taking on water, there's a list of cases at the thread below and also quite a few black hose, pipe, tube and cylinder reports.

Unusual reports of UFOs 'taking on water'


Cheers.

Great. Thanks for the link!

My mother and I just talked to one of our neighbors, just now, and we found out that they too had a sudden spike in their water consumption this past month! That would now total about 15 households, not all in our area (one from as far away as Laguna) that we have discovered have had the same issue. Like I said, everyone we've talked to had the same issue, or knew somebody with the same issue, without fail! Everyone! And in each and every one of those cases they thought their case was an isolated event.

Anyway, one of our neighbors is a media man, and he and I suggested that we all get together this afternoon to discuss this. He is planning on doing a write-up about this and conducting a serious investigation. I will keep you guys posted on the developments.

so you have checked your hot water cylinder for puddles? could be leaking.

I too would like to know what a water softener is.

This is very interesting I don't pay for water my landlord does.

Originally posted by amraks
so you have checked your hot water cylinder for puddles? could be leaking.

I too would like to know what a water softener is.

This is very interesting I don't pay for water my landlord does.

We do not have a hot-water cylinder. It is very hot here so we do not need or want hot-water showers. Like I said in my post, we have had two plumbers check for leaks all along the pipes inside and outside the house and there are no leaks.

cool just making sure i know my hot water cylinder spat out lots of water when it was faulty.

It could be something more innocent- like a leak.

The seals on both of our toilets were broken, and the toilets would run all day. The water company called us and told us that our consumption that month was 500% our usual amount and that we should look into it. Fortunatly by then, we had our toilets fixed.

Sorry, upon further reading, silly me, not reading fully before commenting, my mistake, but anyways...

I think what you are saying is very interesting, I have never heard of this before. If it were true, I would gladly give up my water to legit aliens
However, I'd probably leave a note saying "hey, here is your share of the water bill"

reply to post by pointr97


Why not simply close the security valve when watter is not needed. That would dissuade anyone from relying on that supply for their use.

Do any of your neighbors have a swimming pool? It can cost thousands to fill a decent pool.

I read this thread yesterday and thought what a load of nonsense............. However.............

I discovered last night that my water supply at home has pretty much come to a stop........!

My fiance and I live 'off the grid'' and draw water from a well via a pumping system....the area is agricultural and many here do this however our water supply has just stopped......... Ive got some people out to look at it in a few hours.............could just be a pump issue BUT it could be something else............

Regards

PDUK

If you have a shut off valve before or after the water meter try turning them off for the night and see what happens.

If you have a shutoff valve before the meter, there's an experiment that you can try. You said that it happens at a regular time, between 11pm and 5 am correct. If you have the shutoff valve, before 11pm shutoff the water supply and watch the meter. If the meter spins when the water is off, then there is a problem with the meter and the water company may be ripping you off. Have the others with the problem try this as well. This way you may get an answer to this problem. It's possible that the meter is rigged to run up the bill when nobody would be watching it. I would be interested to know the answer to this rather odd problem.

Whoops poster above me beat me to it.

reply to post by topquark


i didn't see any information on the type of meter installed. is it mechanical with a digital readout or mechanical with physical dial?
if i found myself in your boots, i would grab a bivi bag,torch and flask and babysit the thing in the hours detailed.
a toilet cistern can leak without the occupants being aware of it. i recently overhauled one that shed approx one imperial pint of water per minute. that's about 170 gallons a day give or take. if the bowl is dry then back to the meter imo.
regards f.

Originally posted by Teeky
It's mostly likely the water company. I had a situation where my washer broke down and had to go to the laundromat for 2 months. I was also busy at the time and would let the dishes pile up for a few days before turning on the dishwasher. The water company sent me a bill for $348.00! for that time period. I didn't pay it, and a few months later the water company knocked $200.00 off my bill. I never even gotten around to making a complaint. I believe the water company would of never alerted me that there was an issue and just allowed me to pay the outlandish bill

Happened to me with a VACANT house. Not as much as yours, but a ridiculous amount for a vacant house. It has no neighbors on three sides, one on one side whom I knew. He wasn't the culprit. Outside faucets with handles removed and good friends living in visual view of the house to keep an eye on it. They are both retired. After a few months of varying rates of water usage with no obvious justification, I had the water company turn off the water. I still have to pay $9.00 a month for sewer/storm drains, but it is better than what I was paying.

A Similar thing Happened to us. But With Electricity. We got a Bill That had Literally doubled. The month before was a summer month were we ran the air constantly. The month after we ran none...due to the cool weather. I am a Power nazi..I turn lights off even when people are using them. They had no explanation to why our bill was that high. Governement Conspiracy? I Think so!

reply to post by topquark


Someone could be taking the water from an outside source off your house, if you have a spigot on the outside for a hose this would explain the issue.