1400 Gallons down the drain!

As that great songstress Britney Spears would say, "Oops I did it again".

We drained the cistern of 1400 gallons on Friday night according to the water meter.

This is the third time this has happened this year and the culprit was the same as the first; the downstairs toilet.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon, I checked the cistern water level as part of the norm when turning up the house and it was as full as the internal float limiter would allow (Next year I plan to move the level up, as it only fills to 1400 gallons in a 1700 gallon tank.).

During the evening I noticed that "fresh air" smell in the lower level while watching TV, but I didn't get up to check for the source. First thing the next morning when I turned on a faucet I knew what it was.

I checked the cistern level and it was empty. I didn't flush any toilets before checking the tanks and guess what, the one in the lower level was empty.

I need to do a couple of things; repair the intermittently running toilet and get some type of monitor/automatic shut off system in place in case it happens again.

In searching the Internet there were two promising systems available; FloLogic and H2ORB.

• The Flologic system in a whole house monitor which is programed recognize an out of normal flow amount and then shuts down the water. The con is it costs about $1,000.
• The H2ORB is built to monitor a toilet only for leaks and overflows. Again it is set to recognize an abnormal flow amount, e.g. 25 gallons, then it shuts off the water to the stool. The pro is it appears to be only about $100, but the con is I can't find anyplace to buy one, on or off line.

No wonder the grass is growing so good over the drain field.