Leak Detection & Plumbing Repair in Northridge

The leak check LADWP gives its customers is to shut off all the water indoors and outdoors and then look at the water meter: movement on the meter's leak detection gauge, with everything off, means there is a leak. For toilets, it suggests putting some food coloring in the tank. If the color seeps into the bowl without a flush, LADWP says the toilet has a leak that should be repaired at once.

LADWP also puts numbers on small leaks. Its leak guidance, as it read in October 2026, says running toilets and leaky faucets can waste up to 10,000 gallons of water a year per household, and another LADWP page says a toilet you can hear running when nobody has flushed could be wasting 200 gallons of water or more every day.

Two more LADWP notes concern fixtures. It says the chlorine or chloramine in tap water breaks down, over time, the rubber inside the braided flexible hoses that connect fixtures to the water supply, and that small black, sooty specks in the water are probably from the inside of such a hose. Its fix is to replace the hose, and it notes that newer hoses have a lining that resists the disinfectant, marked on the label. It also says mineral scale is not a health concern but can clog washing-machine inlet screens, showerheads and faucet aerators. Because there is no practical way to remove scale from inside pipes, LADWP says re-piping may be worth considering if the problem is severe.

Through the Metropolitan Water District's SoCal WaterSmart program, LADWP listed two related rebates in October 2026. One covers a qualifying water-flow leak-detection device installed on customer property; applicants must be single-family customers with reliable Wi‑Fi and a smartphone or tablet, and devices installed on the utility meter do not qualify. The other is for residential customers in buildings of one to four units who replace a toilet that uses 1.6 gallons per flush or more with a qualifying model that uses 1.1 gallons per flush or less. LADWP says the program can change or end without notice. Under the City of Los Angeles water-use restrictions that LADWP publishes, all leaks must be repaired in a timely manner.

Installation varies by device. Some can be put in by the homeowner; MWD's product notes say others must be installed by a plumber. Either way, the device has to be installed and activated before the rebate application goes in, and MWD may inspect it. If a contractor buys the device for the customer, the contractor's paid receipt or invoice is what the customer submits. Contractors and other third parties cannot claim the rebate themselves.

Homes with automatic residential fire sprinklers need care here. MWD warns that installing a leak detector the wrong way could hinder the sprinklers: a plumbed leak detection device belongs only on the domestic water line after it splits from the fire sprinkler system, never on the home's incoming water line upstream of the sprinklers. Its advice is to consult a licensed plumber.

Toilets fall under the same program. SoCal WaterSmart accepts only one toilet rebate application per customer, so anyone replacing several toilets has to list them all on a single application.