What does one dripping faucet cost over a year?
Updated August 2026
← What skipping home maintenance costs
One faucet dripping once per second wastes roughly 3,000 gallons a year, and stopping it costs a $5–25 washer, O-ring, or cartridge you change in under 30 minutes. Call a plumber instead and the same repair runs $125–250. Left alone, a home's small leaks stack up toward the EPA's estimate of about 10,000 gallons wasted per household each year, and a hot-water drip bills you twice: once for the water and again for the energy to heat what spirals down the drain. Worse, a steady drip etches mineral tracks and rust into the sink and valve seat until the fixture itself needs replacing. Here is how a part cheaper than lunch grows into a recurring line on the water bill.
The escalation ladder
Every row below is the same leak, left a little longer. The top is a cheap warning; the bottom is a claim.
| What happens | Typical bill | How fast |
|---|---|---|
| You reseat or replace the washer or cartridge yourself | $5–25 in parts, under 30 minutes | Same day |
| A plumber handles the same worn cartridge | $125–250 for the visit | One appointment |
| A single hot-water drip runs unfixed for a year | $20–100+ in wasted water and heating energy | 12 months |
| Every dripping fixture in the house adds up | about 10,000 gallons a year per the EPA | Ongoing |
| Mineral scale and rust pit the valve seat and finish | $150–350 for a new faucet installed | 1–3 years |
| A seized shutoff means the whole valve body is replaced | $200–500 with a plumber | When it finally fails |
Warning signs
You will usually hear or see this one long before the utility does. Watch for a bead of water forming at the spout every few seconds, a rusty or greenish stain streaking down the basin, or a squeal and stiffness when you shut the handle off. A drip that only shows on the hot side points to a worn cartridge; one that worsens with the seasons often tracks the house's water pressure. Put a dry cup under the spout overnight: if it holds water by morning, the fixture is leaking around the clock. Any of these means the valve seat or seal has already given up, and the count of gallons is climbing whether you notice it or not.
The prevention math
The whole prevention bill is a $5–25 repair kit and one reminder a season to check each faucet. Match the cartridge or washer to your faucet brand, keep a spare on hand, and a drip never gets the months it needs to stain a basin or run up a bill. Set that against the table: the cheap end is a part you can hold in your palm, the expensive end is a $150–350 fixture replacement plus every gallon wasted in between. Cleaning the aerator on the same visit keeps flow strong and lets you spot a starting drip early; the interval is in how often to clean a faucet aerator. If a fixture drips even when fully closed, why a faucet drips when turned off walks through the cause.
Every line in that table starts with a skipped 10-minute task. OnOtto keeps the 10-minute version on your calendar so the $2,000 version never happens.
Get the nudge before the billFrequently asked questions
Is a dripping faucet actually worth fixing, or is it just a few cents?
The water alone looks trivial until you total it: one drip per second is about 3,000 gallons a year, and a faster drip or a hot-water leak pushes the yearly cost into the $20–100+ range once heating energy counts. The bigger expense is the fixture. A drip that runs for months corrodes the valve seat and stains the basin, turning a $5–25 washer into a $150–350 faucet replacement. Fixing it early is almost always the cheapest move.
What part usually causes a faucet to drip?
Most drips trace to a worn rubber washer, a hardened O-ring, or a cracked cartridge, all of which cost $5–25 to replace. Compression faucets use a washer that flattens over time; cartridge, ball, and ceramic-disc faucets fail at the cartridge or seals instead. Hard water speeds the wear by depositing scale on the sealing surfaces. If the drip is on the hot side only, the cartridge is the usual suspect, since hot water breaks rubber parts down faster than cold.
Can I fix a dripping faucet myself?
Yes, for most faucets this is a 20 to 40 minute job. Shut off the supply valves under the sink, plug the drain, and take the handle and cartridge or stem apart, noting the order of parts. Bring the old washer or cartridge to the store to match it, since brands differ. Reassemble, turn the water back on slowly, and check for leaks. If the shutoff valve itself is seized or the faucet body is cracked, that is when a $125–250 plumber visit makes sense.
Does a dripping faucet mean my water pressure is too high?
It can. Pressure above the 80 psi code maximum stresses washers and cartridges so they fail early and drip, and it also drives running toilets and water hammer. Pick up a $10 gauge that threads onto a hose bibb and check; a healthy house sits at 50–60 psi. If yours reads high, a pressure-reducing valve protects every fixture at once. The full picture is in the cost of ignoring a running toilet, which shares the same high-pressure root cause.