Some of my water lines froze and busted last month. After it thawed I don't think the water ran unrestricted more than a few hours. My water bill generally runs $22-$29. The bill came yesterday - $243.50 I went to double check the reading last night and again this morning but the glass cover over the dial is so cloudy I couldn't make out any numbers. Any ideas on drying out the gauge that don't require electricity? The bill was for 24,000 gallons more than normal, that isn't possible is it?

I plan to talk to the water company tomorrow.

 

If the water company has outside remote meter reading ability where they don't have to actually see the meter.... then the head filled with water can cause all kinds of erroneous readings.

 

The meter is 27-28 yrs old, they read it manually.

 

I'm used to water meters up here always in the house.
I'm guessing yours is outside on the side of the house or in a pit ?

 

I got my calculator out and 24,000 gallons over an 8 hour time frame would be 3,000 gallons per hour. That works out to be 50 gallons per minute. I don't know the size of the water pipe but 50 gallons per minute out of a one inch pipe would have to have a fair amount of pressure behind it and you have stated many times that you do not have high pressure.

I'd definitely fight it with the water utility.

 

The frozen/busted pipes were down near the road where the water pressure is around 120 psi. I was surprised that the pipe froze where it did and not further up the hill were it isn't buried as deep but apparently at the time it froze there wasn't enough pressure to get the water up that high. It took 4 days for the pipes to thaw and for the leaks to become noticeable. I had been checking the meter several times a day for movement so I doubt it leaked more than a few hours.

The meter is next to the road housed in pipe about 2' in diameter with a steel lid somewhat like a manhole cover. My PVC is 3/4" so is the meter which is fed by a 2" main.

 

Sorry, Mark. I found this calculator and it looks like that could be a legitimate number.

https://www.tlv.com/global/TI/calcul...h-orifice.html

I used 120 psi for the primary pressure and 50 psi for the secondary pressure, the pressure after the break. This assumes the pipe was not completely broken but only cracked severely. It comes out as 5,888 gallons per hour. Four hours would be 23,552 gallons.

 

Thanks Joel, even though that wasn't what I wanted to hear!
The first two breaks were complete ruptures which eroded the ground above the pipe although it wasn't a complete washout.

 

Went to the water company this morning. They are going to re read my meter, verify I don't have any leaks and then adjust my bill. Apparently any water that ran out on the ground I'll get to pay for at a reduced rate. I assume they'll base it off of a normal month although I doubt I'll get any credit for not having water for 4 days.

 

Do you think it is likely to happen again? You could install one of these immediately after the water meter. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/03...11705570009290

 

Interesting, I'll have to look into it. While this is the first time I've had buried pipe freeze, I have had fittings blow apart before - mostly from repairs made when it was too cold for the glue.