Water supply problems

Troubleshooting guides

Use the troubleshooting guides below to assist you with you water supply problem:

Step 1: Please check for outages affecting your property.

Step 2: If there are no water outages shown on the map for your property, please check the stop tap on your water meter is turned on.

Step 3: If your stop tap is turned on and you still have no water, please check that your mains isolation valve is also turned on. This valve is usually located near your water meter at the property boundary or inside the meter box. For example:

Mains internal isolation valve in meter box

Step 4: If your stop tap and mains isolation valve are on and you still have no water, please report a fault online.

Water looks, tastes or smells unusual

The problem could be caused by the plumbing on your property or an issue with the Unitywater water supply network:

The problem is likely to be in your household plumbing if:

only some taps are affected
the problem goes away after a few minutes of running the water.

For all problems to do with your household plumbing, please call a local licensed plumber.

If you believe there is a problem with the water supply, or you can’t work out the source of the issue, please check out our water quality issues page for more information.

Low or high water pressure

Do you have a water pressure issue?

This may be due to:

problems with your property’s plumbing (like a blocked pipe or concealed leak)
problems with Unitywater infrastructure (like a burst or leaking water main)
fire-fighting happening in your area or fire brigade testing hydrants
Unitywater maintenance activities (like hydrant flushing or flow testing)
new water appliances being installed on your property
your property may be in an area which experiences pressure issues due to its natural location (e.g. it is on a very high hill), which means pressure-booster equipment may be required.

Learn how to find the cause of low or high water pressure and what to do next.

Hammering noise in pipes

A hammering noise from your pipes can be caused by:

pressure fluctuations caused by turning your taps off quickly
the jumper valve in your tap is sticking.

Here are some helpful tips on what to do next.

Can you turn off your stop tap?

Don't wait until you have an emergency to find your stop tap. Stop taps are often out of sight and probably out of mind. If you have an emergency, you’ll need to find it in a hurry to turn your water off.

Find out how to turn your stop tap off and on.

Damaged or faulty water meter

If you can see physical signs of damage on your water meter, please contact us.

This could include:

structural damage (e.g. the meter has been dented, run over or slashed by a mower or whipper snipper)
other defects (e.g. cloudy or smashed glass).

Need more information? Here’s what to know about damaged and faulty meters.

Dirty brown water running into a sink

Checking for water leaks on your property is important

Any plumbing problems on private property are the property owner’s responsibility to investigate and repair. If the water leak is on your property, we recommend you contact a local licensed plumber.

If you are not sure whether the leak is on your property or Unitywater's, use the diagram (pictured right) to determine if the water leak is your responsibility or ours.

Learn how to check for water leaks