Patent ID: 8310369

Claim:
A toilet monitoring device for determining when a toilet of the type having a fill valve is leaking, the toilet monitoring device comprising: a sensor that in use produces a signal having an amplitude corresponding to sound and/or vibration detected by the sensor; and an electronic circuit to receive and process the signal, the electronic circuit being configured to (a) periodically sample the amplitude of the electrical signal and determine an average amplitude (b) establish a comparative threshold in response to the determined average amplitude, (c) compare the signal amplitudes with the comparative threshold to determine time durations (T 3 ) for which the amplitude of the signal exceeds the comparative threshold and time durations (T 4 ) for which the amplitude of the signal is below the comparative threshold, (d) compare an average value of T 3 to a stored user initiated fill valve activity time duration threshold (T 1 ) and if T 3 is less than T 1 , (e) compare the average value of T 3 to an average value for T 4 and if T 3 is less than T 4 , (f) provide an indication of a toilet fill valve leak.