Water bill to high

[chad]

my water bill is about 14.3% of my gross.. i think that is kind of to high... what do you guys think?

14.3 % water
4.8 % electric
10.3 % gas

[jamesbond]

it seems very high.
My water is 4%. G&E comes close to 12% last year.

[bodman]

if you are loaded with tops and older fronts there might not be much for you to do but replace with high efficency washers. or raise your vend prices or eliminate prewash or one rinse cycle. Cost for water/sewer can vary from county to county one multiple mat owner in south florida pays as much as 65% more for the same water usage at his mats.. I am up in north florida and total utilities at 3 mats avg. 24% 2 mats are discount (chairty) and one is reg highest price with wdf. it might be helpful if you post your cost per gallon/cubic foot of water used. i pay 1.28 for natural gas, .13 for kw electric incl. tax and water/sewer .0065 per gallon tax incl. So the more the unit cost the more you pay for the same quanty used somewhere else. my best friend lives in tennessee and he is always 10 cents less at the gas pump. hope this helps . another food for thought show up to your mat when no customers present and check your water meter to see if it is running there may be a washer running, one of my tops was doing that last week.

[BMWHD3060]

BODMAN, I just locked in my gas rate for the next 5 yrs for .77 cents a therm with my transportation company.

[capitolcity]

Wow, I would be worried about that water percentage. My water costs were 6.1% of gross last year.

[BMWHD3060]

Way to high on yor water usage, look for leaks, also ck for leaking drain valves while the machines are running, the water valves will kick in several times after fill up, if the drain valves are leaking, my water usage for last yr was about 7% of gross sales

[Fred]

Chad,
Do you have high efficiency washers? I keep a only a token number of top load washers for the die-hard t/l fans, and they pay the price for that addiction. I price by water temperature and the tops are 20% higher in price to offset the terrible efficiency.

Is your sewer charge included in your water bill?

No sewer charges are in my water, and my other utility charges are similar to yours.

electric 4.6%
Nat gas 10.8%
water 3.6%

[epic02]

Chad here are mine:
Water 7%
Electric 6%
Gas 12%
Something doesn't seem right you might have a leek, your drain valves maybe are not closing properly, or the gym next door to you are on the same water line and your paying for there showers. When you close your mat check your meter in the night then check it in the morning to see if the numbers are still the same.
Kenny

[chad]

i have looked at 2008's water bill and they are all pretty dam consistant. around 4k a month. i will take a look at it and see what is the deal. i dont have any leaks, my washers are not old at all.. i do have a prewash a wash and rinse on my washers.

[capitolcity]

[ QUOTE ]
i do have a prewash a wash and rinse on my washers.

[/ QUOTE ]

No way a pre-wash would increase your costs that much. You have to have something else going on there. What does your municipality charge for water? Maybe your water delivery charge is higher in your area.

[chad]

Last months water bill...

here is the break down

TOTAL water used 723 HCFx 2.919 is $2111.04

Sewer service charge $2128.77
651 HCF x 3.27

$4300.00 for water!!

[chad]

- $0.00 12/09/08 $2041.65 $0.00 $2037.83

- $0.00 11/06/08 $1992.33 $0.00 $1942.20

- $0.00 10/07/08 $1761.49 $0.00 $1704.79

- $0.00 09/08/08 $2096.81 $0.00 $2027.94

- $0.00 08/07/08 $1731.48 $0.00 $1675.11

- $0.00 07/09/08 $2027.56 $0.00 $1957.57

- $0.00 06/09/08 $2111.92 $0.00 $2122.18

- $0.00 05/08/08 $1841.37 $0.00 $1882.28

- $0.00 04/09/08 $2087.88 $0.00 $2168.31

- $0.00 03/11/08 $1977.97 $0.00 $2066.82

- $0.00 02/08/08 $2322.20 $0.00 $2426.66

- $0.00 01/10/08 $2225.70 $0.00 $2414.36

for the past year

[Duane]

Chad,

Your water charge is $0.0039 per gallon and your sewer charge is $0.00437 per gallon.

That is approxiametly .827 cents per gallon of water used.

You used 540,840.15 gallons last month of water. (723 HCF * 748.05)


If you know your TPD for each machine and the approx amount of water used per washer you should be able to get a close estimate of what you should be using a month. I would definetly check your meter at night and in the morning to make sure you don't have any leaks. You might want to turn your main off and see if any of the other tenants lose water.

The small dial on the meter should not spin at all when your store is idle.

Duane.

[Adamski]

Chad,

I never heard of a laundromat using that much water in a month. Something is definately wrong there. Perhaps you have an underground water pipe that is leaking. Perhaps your meter is defective. Perhaps there is a cross connection with an adjoining tenant. Perhaps you're losing water on the roof to an over-flowing swamp cooler.

Check everything.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[chad]

i will check it out tonight guys, thanks always for all the great help. I will keep you guys posted

[capitolcity]

I pay $.00774 per gallon used (in and out combined)

You pay $.00827 per gallon used.

You are paying 6.4% more for your water than I am.

[neal]

My stores are in the desert and we don't pay that much for our water & sewer. Not even close. You must be grossing 1200.00 a day. Or have a very happy business next store.

[chad]

if we were grossing around 32k a month would that number make sence?

[Duane]

Some water meters are calculated with multiples. Just before I opened up my store the water bill was 10 times what I estimated it should be. Found out they never removed the 10x multiplier when I upgraded meters. The old meter only read tenths of a cubic feet so they multiplied by 10 to get cubic feet. My new meter reads in cubic feet.

[chad]

iam way higher then 25%!!! also i am pretty high prices

tops $1.95
30lb $3.30
60lb $5.85
80lb $7.50

[Adamski]

Chad,

Let's not confuse the issue by discussing water/sewer PRICES. Your consumption is more than 3 times what I use. Now, I know that my washers are efficient, but they're not THAT efficient. I think you've got a correctable problem somewhere in your system.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[chad]

i call dwp they will come out and check my meter and let me know.

[SonomaJoe]

[ QUOTE ]
if we were grossing around 32k a month would that number make sence?

[/ QUOTE ]

I grossed 1/2 as much, water/sewer was $1,400

[bodman]

my gross was 1/3 less than yours and i used 188,780 gallons at 50% off daytime prices.

[BCW]

I pay four tenths of a cent for 1 gal. of water /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Tom

[Rangila4u]

Chad,

I dont see any problem in usage because you are in LA. I belive it is higher because of LOS ANGELES county sewer charges. your water is 6 dollars per HCF. It is only the case with Los angeles. Other places it is no more than 2.70 per hcf.

my 2 cents :-)

[halliday1]

We have appealed to the local gov to give us flat rate or something to reduce our nearly 10k water bill per year. We have a small store 18 wash machines of mixed sizes. Utilities have doubled since taking possession a few years ago. Have to check for percentages of gross, etc. All I know is that these bills seem outrageous and we cannot endure these high costs. any thoughts?? Do other communities provide discounts or flat rates for large usage of water/sewer??

[Adamski]

halliday1,

Water and sewage utilities are generally run by local governments. Each sets up its rates and fees which often must follow guidelines set by each state. These rates and fees vary widely from one utility to the next.

I don't know where you're located but if your water/sewer rates seem high; you should consider buying more efficient washers and/or raising your vend prices to cover your costs plus a reasonable profit. It does little good to rant and rave like a retired person on a "fixed income". You're a businessman. Understand the costs of doing business and work to reduce or stabilize your costs. In the meantime, evaluate your vend prices to see if they how they relate to your costs. The days of discounts for large volume purchases are long over.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[halliday1]

Well, okay, Larry. Thanks for your input. We're upstate NY in a rather depressed area. Don't think raising our prices would go over too well with the locals. Neither would our laundromat going out of business. Like I said, the rates for water have doubled just in the last few years. I guess that's the cost of doing business, as you said. One of them.

[Adamski]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't think raising our prices would go over too well with the locals. Neither would our laundromat going out of business.

[/ QUOTE ]

halliday1,

The above quote is certainly telling. Your customers don't like higher rates but they don't want the laundromat to close up either. What a big surprise! Have you ever heard a customer say, "Gee, the rates are really low here ... don't you think you should raise them up higher?" Or have you ever heard a customer say, "Gee, I wish this laundromat would close up so that I have to drive further to the next laundromat each week."

Guys, if you let your customers make your business decisions for you; they'll run your place into the ground. Is that what you want?

Here's how I deal with competitors who refuse to keep their prices in line with their costs:

1. Resolve to never follow the lead of a fool.

2. Set vend prices according to my costs plus a fair profit.

3. Monitor tpds (turns per day) and gross sales.

4. Make improvements to maintain profitability.
A. Replace older equipment with new.
B. Add features for customer convenience and comfort.
C. Maintain a higher level of cleanliness and service.

5. Resolve to repeat steps 1 thru 4 on a regular basis.

Sorry to be so direct but I think you (and possibly your nearby competitors) need a wake-up call. No utility is going to give you a flat water/sewer rate to save your business from going under. They simply don't care about small potatoes like you and I.

By the way, the unemployment rate in Muskegon (where my laundromat is located) is over 12% and the city's largest manufacturer has just announced it's shutting down tomorrow. Neither of these factors, however, will help me pay my water/sewer bill when it arrives in the mail.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[sudz]

I'm also in L.A. county and the sewer bill is higher than the water and electric. We are getting totally screwed doing business in the city of Angels.

[neal]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm also in L.A. county and the sewer bill is higher than the water and electric. We are getting totally screwed doing business in the city of Angels.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its not just LA county its the state of California. I had several different kinds of business in the state of California always high taxes and costs high utiltys and rents Thats why I moved to Nevada

[Self_Suds_WV]

I just paid $600 to have the city of Glenville, WV install a 1 1/2" meter (I am putting in a small town mat with only 12 washers and 6 dual pocket dryers) The minimum bill is 28,500 gallons per month (about 2 turns) at $ 60.96 and sewer is 121.92. The gentleman at the water plant told me to expect water rates to climb 19% by december this year (approximately $72.54).

So water + sewer = (72.54+121.92) / 28500 = .0068 per gallon (+ 2% tax)

[launderland2]

How about sewer charge. I am supposed to pay 15,000 this year for it. My average water usage is 400 ccf. How about yours ???
Thanks, LL2