water meter malfunction

Hi, Don't you know if any device has moving parts, it can always break and malfunction, right?

Doubtful. More likely the prior reading was incorrectly taken.

restate your question using more words.

Agree. More words.

many years ago my meter broke it at most was recoding on 1/4 of the water used, must of been a broken gear, the meter became noisey.

so i locked out my caller ID and called the water company requesting a outside reading water meter. they said 2 years to get it installed.

so i said i wouldnt tell them who i was, unless they installed to outside reading meter since they had to come in any case to install a new meter....

the gal got her bosses approval, but said you know this is black mail........

i said yeah i know, but it worked.

my elderly grandma could barely walk and didnt like peolple coming in the house.

so this worked for me.

back on topic, lets assume the water source quit, but lots of air pressure somehow got pushed thru the line.

the air motion might get recorded as water used?

Not from what I've seen/ I have a meter on a condensate return line ad it frequently had air passing throu but never moved.

It may happen when several nines are turning to zeros.

It is possible for an inexperienced meter reader to misread the old clock-type meters. Way off one month, then back to "reality" the next.

Our gas meter reader did that a few months before they changed the meter to a "digital" meter. -

My parents old gas meter, every other dial turned left, or right.

Virtually all dial meters worked that way

Three day investigation on this including on-site inspection including coun ty water department (in my presence) plus discussion with plumber leads me to believe something I've not heard of...water theft. Either someone with a 20K gal t ank drove up while no-one was home and hooked up to exterior outlet, filled up and drove away or also under cover of dark when when no-one there ran g arden hose several hundred feet and filled their swimming pool. I want to ask my insurer if my policy (which includes theft) covers this type of thef t. My problem is that a few years back it was documented that any enquir y about one's policy, in many cases, led to increases in premiums some time later. Rather than for that to happen I would rather bite the bullet in t his incident and pay than to risk increase in premium... I would but a loc k on exterior outlets.

No need for a lock---On the inside I have a ball valve in line with the outside shut off valve. In the winter I open the outside valve to prevent a frozen pipe. MLD