That moment I realized my sprinkler system was watering the street for 3 months

So I just moved into a house in Decatur back in April and noticed my water bill was creeping up about $25 more each month. I blamed it on summer watering but finally checked my sprinkler heads last weekend. Turns out 3 of them were tilted wrong and spraying half the water onto the sidewalk and street. I spent Saturday adjusting all 12 heads and now I'm curious how much that waste actually cost me. Has anyone else found hidden water waste after moving into an older Atlanta home?

2 comments

2 Comments

willow_martin6d ago

oh yeah the timer thing is huge. when I moved into my place near East Lake I found the previous owner had the system programmed to run at 2am AND 6pm every day. no wonder my bill was insane. definitely check if there's a second program running that you don't know about.

oliver_fisher6d ago

I actually read somewhere that a single misaligned sprinkler head can waste like 500 gallons a month easy. At Atlanta Water rates that's probably $15-20 per head depending on the season. For 3 heads running 3 months you might be looking at $150-200 down the drain just onto the street. I had a similar problem at my old place near Stone Mountain where the previous owner had the timer set to run at noon during July all that water just evaporated before it hit the ground. Did you check the controller settings too because sometimes those older timers have hidden schedules that run even when you think they're off?