Phantom readings
I installed my meter on the main water inlet pipe before the water heater, calibrated it and made sure it works correctly when I turn on water in different parts of the house. I monitored it for a few days and everything looked alright. Then, I went away for a week and as I was checking the Streamlabs app, the meter started reporting water consumption mid-week. When I got back home, there were no leaks and no running water anywhere. Below is a link to screenshots of what the consumption history looked like that week (again, nobody was home). You can see it started incrementing right around 12am on Thu and stopped abruptly right around when I got home at 8pm on Fri. Do you know what could have caused this behavior?
Thanks for your help!
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Official comment
Hi Leonid,
Thanks for sending that information over. Do you have an ice maker, an irrigation system, or a water softener? Each of these things could be using water while you are away. In another comment, I think you mentioned that you tried re-calibrating the device. Would you be able to tell us what type/size pipe your Monitor is installed on?
Thanks!
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There is an ice maker in the fridge, no irrigation system, no water softener or anything else that uses water. I'm pretty sure the ice maker does not use hundreds of gallons of water per day, as the Streamlabs device is reporting. Also, I have my normal inline water meter just upstream of the Streamlabs and it's not reporting any consumption.
I did recalibrate and that did not help. Pipe type as reported by the Streamlabs meter is 3/4" CPVC. That sounds about right, but I didn't measure the diameter to confirm.
Thanks!
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This is definitely odd, what I would do is compare and record utility water meter usage to this when you are away. My first impression of the screen cap is a malfunction in the unit. Certainly a water softener can account but you don't have one, a leak wouldn't stop and not return. Reverse Osmosis use trickle amounts ratio of 4:1, for every gallon used 4 go down drain. Try shutting water off and see if reading appear. Just a matter of process of elimination.
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I am having a similar issue. We received the monitor as a Christmas gift and installed in on December 27, 2019. It appeared to work properly the first day. The next day we received a leak warning when the washing machine would fill, but then when the tub was full the warning went off. We thought it was "learning" our water habits since according to documentation that takes a week. This morning we received leak warnings, but again we were taking a shower and doing loads of laundry and thought this was initiating the report.
This afternoon while we were out for a walk we received a slow leak warning. We were not using any water during this time. My husband checked the water line under the house while I checked all possible locations in the house. Nothing. My husband listened to the water pipe to discern if there was any water running. None. We did a variety of troubleshooting techniques including shutting down our hot water recirculation pump and found absolutely no evidence of a leak.
The leaks spontaneously end, for no apparent reason.
3:21 leak detected - 4:05 leak ended
5:10 leak detected - 5:45 leak ended
6:05 leak detected - at 10:00 the monitor is still showing a slow leak
We do not have a water softener or irrigation system. The ice maker is not drawing any water. We have eliminated the recirculation pump as a possible contributor. We have not recalibrated, since it did not seem to resolve Leonid's situation.
We are on 3/4" copper.
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Hi,
The first two leak alerts you received likely triggered the "Major" Leak Alert setting. Note that while your Monitor is in learning mode, it defaults to the manual leak alert settings that are in your StreamLabs App. You can change those at any time.
I would recommend re-calibrating your device to start. Make sure no water is running during calibration by shutting off your main valve, if possible. If you are still seeing flow/receiving slow leak alerts when no water is running, please let us know and reach out to support@streamlabswater.com for further assistance.
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