My landlord is getting $700 water bills per month and nobody knows why. About 4 people use this water and it is about 55 thousand gallons per month.
I'd like to check how much water the dishwasher is using. It sometimes sounds like a waterfall inside of it. I'm not sure it always sounded like this.
How can I examine a dishwasher for how much water it uses during its operation? What tool can I use and where can I apply it? Or is there a better plan to make?
It's way too much water for any intended use.
To give you an idea, the last time I saw a $700 bill, it was from a toilet at a rarely-used facility, which had a stuck float. The valve was wide open 24x7 for 2 months. That's the kind of flow we're talking about.
For a dishwasher to have that much flow, it would have to be waterfalling 24x7, running its little pump to death. So that's not likely, due to the dishwasher's need to pump its wastewater up.
It is absolutely impossible for a dishwasher to overuse that much water during the hour or so a day it is in-use.
Outside of toilets, you'd know about any appliances leaking that much water, because their usage is obvious. You'd notice if a shower, tub or sink was running full-on.
The only things that remain are:
First, it's almost certainly not the fault of your dishwasher. A dishwasher has to physically pump the water out of it, and they really only hold enough water to fill the bottom. If it started to fill completely, the water would leak out all over the floor - the seals are not designed to hold back that kind of pressure.
The problem is most likely a leak or a running toilet, which can use a surprising amount of water. Every water meter has an indicator that shows water is being used, and that can help tell if you have a leak.
Now, if you really want to know how much water something is using, you can get a water hose water meter that will give you gallon-accurate water usage. The meters are cheap, but you'll also need $10-$20 in adapters to go from the water hose thread to 3/8" compression fittings or whatever you need to adapt to. Also note that those cheap meters are not rated for long-term indoor installation. Don't leave one installed because it can leak. Use it to measure the water, then take it off. To permanently install something is possible, but more expensive.
To just answer your question about how much water your dishwasher uses, unhook the drain tubing for the DW and stick it into a big bucket so you can catch the water as it drains out. You might need two buckets, one for wash and one for rinse. The drain tubing disconnect easily from a trap or the disposal. Once you get all the water in buckets, just scoop it out with a quart measuring cup and count them. I seriously doubt the problem is your dishwasher.
that is a very large water bill. This size of leak could easily be in the pipes in the ground before they reach the units and after the meter. To test, turn off all the water outlets (normal situation & without any dishwashers or clothes washers running). Check your meter to see if its running or not. If not obviously running, record the value and come back and check at 15 minutes and maybe even 30 minutes. If there is significant movement, the source of the trouble isn't your dishwasher and is probably the underground plumbing.
Alternately, call your utility company for help. Most of them will help, they are interested in conservation
Do you have access to the water meter? Here in Australia we have meters which have a counter on them a bit like the odometer on an older car. The faster the right most dial spins the faster the flow through it.
Turn everything off and watch how fast it spins. With everything off it shouldn't move unless there's a leak somewhere.
To me it sounds like a leak. A dishwasher once take for the wash load (around 10L) just recycles it, then take another 10L for the rinse and for any additional rinse. (usually it takes less than 50L).
In my opinion is a hidden leak (like a buried pipe) or just a toilet stuck flushing or with a worn gasket. In my case the high bill (100 m^3 excess over some years) was a leaky toilet with a worn gasket that overflowed not much so we just ignored it thinking wasn't that bad, like a almost-close tap, say 1L/min this error costed us around 100€ over 2 years.
sidenote: here tap water, including sewers and depuration costs around 1,8 €/m^3 for the baseline, with sudden increases when going over.
Not sure why you are fixated on your dishwasher but according to Google the average dishwasher uses about 6 gallons per cycle so this is really just a math problem.
6 gallons x 4 cycles per day x 30 days = 720 gallons
I don't know if 4 cycles is normal for one day but even if you doubled that then you are still well below the quoted 55,000 gallons.
There's a leak somewhere; a big one. Do you have a water-powered back-up sump pump in the basement?
If your landlord is pointing fingers then tell him your water usage has remained the same and mention the possibility of a leak in the system.
check for a leak. Make sure all tennants (how many?) are not using water and see if the water meter is still spinning. Sounds like a leak to me.
