Since my last blog was about saving money, I thought I’d follow it up with another one on the same topic. While I can go on and on about fixtures that save you money by saving water, what if those fixtures don’t work?
While I stand by the products that I promote on here like Toto, Cifial, Duravit and Porcher, not everything is perfect. Leaks can happen over time, from a manufacturer’s defect, deterioration or accidental damage from use. Big leaks are easy to detect; often there is an annoying sound accompanying those. What about silent or intermittent leaks?
Just as air leaking from a car’s tire can be impossible to detect right away, so is water leaking in your toilet. The biggest culprit is an important piece called the flapper. A leaking flapper will produce a drop in the water level inside the toilet tank, causing the fill valve float (or pressure sensor) to activate, which usually lasts several seconds. This phenomenon is often referred to as a “phantom flush”. As the flapper continues to leak, this process repeats itself. When a fill valve action occurs (phantom flush or actual flush), water is forced into the tank at a rate that is a function of the water pressure, toilet feed-valve, and the ports of the fill valve itself. The pressurized water produces turbulence inside the tank, which in turn produces vibration.
The best way to counter this? Previous methods involve dyeing the water blue in the tank and replacing the flapper every few years. But who has time to go rifling through the back of their Herbeau toilet if they don’t have to? The Leak Alertor is designed to sound out those tiny trickling noises that are below the normal threshold of hearing humans can handle. After a simple installation consisting of attaching it to the side of your toilet tank, it becomes accustomed to the sorts of sounds your toilet will produce and detect abnormal ones, like water trickling down into the bowl.
The Leak Alertor will then flash red if a leak is heard. It works constantly, and occasionally flashes a LED light to let you know water flow is properly regulated. By proactively finding a leak in your toilet, you can potentially hundreds of dollars a year. This product is cheap, only $20 and will last up to two years. Replacements are even cheaper, at $5. Check them out, watch the video, save water and money today!
Check out their website here: http://www.leakalertor.com/