Where is the leak?

Welcome back to Happi Plumbing Channel.

Today we’d like to share a very unusual water leak mystery.

The house was leaking half a bucket of water every minute. You could clearly hear the sound of running water inside the house, but there wasn’t a single visible sign of water anywhere.

The water meter showed 2.4 GPM (gallons per minute). For comparison, a standard household bucket holds 5 gallons, and a typical kitchen faucet flows at about 1.8 GPM. That means the leak was using more water than a fully opened kitchen faucet.

We opened the crawlspace, but there was no standing water in sight. I could hear the sound of water inside the house, yet with such a large leak, where was the water coming from? And where was it going? It was truly a mystery.

I checked every bathroom upstairs and downstairs, inspected all the faucets and toilets, and everything looked perfectly normal. So I decided to crawl into the crawlspace, which was only about one foot high, for a closer inspection.

Right at the entrance, I could hear the water, but I still couldn’t see it. After crawling much deeper into the crawlspace, I finally found the leak. Because of the slope under the house, all the leaking water had flowed to the opposite side, which is why there was no water visible near the entrance.

The pipes in the crawlspace hadn’t burst. Instead, the water was dripping down from above. But the leak wasn’t underneath a bathroom or the kitchen, which made the situation even more puzzling.

Based on the location, I figured the leak had to be underneath this staircase. Inside a storage room, I noticed a panel that looked removable, so I decided to open it and see what was behind it.

Sure enough, there was a hidden water heater. It turned out that the temperature and pressure relief valve (T&P valve) had been left open.

Most likely, the homeowner had hired a handyman to install the water heater. During the installation, the T&P valve was accidentally opened and was never checked or tested before the job was finished. As a result, it had been leaking ever since.

After closing the valve, I checked the water meter again and confirmed that the leak was completely gone.

Case closed! Another mysterious water leak solved.

Customer was super Happi with the result.