Water pipe replacement question

[Steve Barker]

been in 45 states. only seen an indoor meter in person once.

[krw]

Every house I've owned, in the North, the water meter was inside. Even where I grew up, they were *all* inside. Just the idea of an outside water meter, in a cold climate, is plain silly.

[krw]

Must be something to do with that white cane.

[clare]

Well, I've been in 30? of your states, 10 provinces, and at least 10 other countries. Likely closer to 15. I have seen meters above ground at street, above ground outside house, and inside houses. I haven't seen them underground at the street - but I guess if they were underground I wouldn't see them, would I?? Just as if they were INSIDE you would be unlikely to see them - unless you purposefully went looking for them. Not knowing where mine is located you could be in my house for a week and not know I HAD a meter unless you searched for it (and got lucky - since you couldn't follow the pipes because, like MOST basement around here, mine is almost TOTALLY finished.

Anywhere frost is common I've never seen one outside above ground. Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Manitoba, Sakatchewan, much of BC, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Idaho, Michigan, northern New York would have at least a large percentage inside. I suspect Kansas and oklahoma would too,.

I've seen ouside meters in Florida, Georgia,Tennessee, South Carolina, and west virginia, as well as parts of Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Italy, saeveral caribean islands and France. A lot of these places don't all have water meters.OPr even municipal water. No water meters in Burkina Faso, Bottswana and Zambia - at least when I was there.

[Ed Pawlowski]

You've been to the wrong places. Go to Philadelphia and you can see tens of thousands of indoor gas and water meters. I lived in a row house with 50 houses just on my block. That street ran about 12 blocks. One of many.

Or here in CT where I can show you thousands of them.

[bob haller]

indoors in pittsburgh too. i only saw ONE outdoor meter in pittsburgh my entire life. it was in a deep sump covered by a steel lid when i was a child, at a nearby home...

the frost line is at least 4 feet in pittsburgh, and basements are the norm here

[George]

Thats the standard arrangement in my area and the dozen states around me. Typically the only time they use outside meter pits is for the few applications when there isn't a heated space.

[George]

The very typical arrangement where I live and at least the dozen states around me is indoor water meters. The only time they use an outside meter pit is for the few places that cannot accommodate a meter. For example the cemetery where most of my family is buried has a few frost proof hydrants and there is a meter pit next to the first one.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

All the water meters I've seen/know about in upstate NY are inside. Most gas meters in older construction are still inside. *Most* electric meters are outside now except for cities.

Jim

[Steve Barker]

Well here in the Kansas city area, Most all the water meters are outside in a well. They are mostly remotely read from the street also. I have seen one inside in the older part of the plaza area. All the meters are outside in the rural areas. Silly as it may seem, that's the way it is.

[Steve Barker]

well no, that's obvious. They wouldn't be above ground in an area that has the possibility of freezing temperatures. By "outside" I was referring to NOT inside the house.

[Steve Barker]

how the heck did they read them before the advent of the remote dealy ma bobs?

[Jim Elbrecht]

Until last year I sent the town my water meter reading every 6 months. When I bought the house 27 years ago I signed off on the reading the previous owner read. When the guy replaced it [with a basement, remote read type] last year he made a note of the old meter reading. For gas and electric they would estimate if nobody was home to lead them to the basement every other month. I never had one of them so I don't know how long they'd estimate before insisting on seeing the meter.

Jim

[Dan Espen]

Here in central NJ we have inside water meters. Up until about 15 years ago, I knew the meter reader well. He'd ring the bell, I'd let him into the basement and he'd read the meter. Nice guy.

About 15 years ago they changed the meters and now the meter is still inside but they have a wire that runs outside with a little black plastic thing they put their reader up against.

I haven't seen them in a while and I got a notice that they are going to change these devices so they can read them from the curb. I don't know if they've done that yet.

But the meter itself is still inside.

[trader4]

Maybe in your part of central NJ, but not here in the parts of Monmouth county where I've lived. Here they are underground, at the curb. I'll bet you're in an actual town. The areas are more rural here.

That's kind of how they read the meter at the curb, except the guy doesn't even need to get out of his vehicle.

[Ook]

Here in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, the meters are in the ground at the curb, and usually less than a foot deep. It just doesn't get cold enough here to freeze them. I looked up the city codes, and they say something about the frost line here being 12 inches. I shudder to think of a winter cold enough to freeze the ground 12 inches deep, it would be a disaster. We just don't get the cold weather. Rain, yes, OMG it starts raining at the end of September, and does not stop raining until the end of May (it is just now starting to dry out), sometimes the rain continues until mid June. We get about three months of no rain in the summers, and then the rain starts up again. We have MUD nine months out of the year, and ironically we have three months of drought, and by August the forest fires start.

[clare]

And that is about half of the USA, virtually all of Canada, 75% or more of europe, just for starters.

That's pretty obvious

[clare]

It used to be pretty normal for "the lady of the house" to be home during the day. Those meters that could not be accessed for reading got a notice in the mail, and the home-owner/tennant read the meter and mailed it in. Just drew the lines on the diagram of the meter to show where the needle was pointing, in most cases.

[micky]

I guess this company advertises fairly often, but last night I really notice that they were saying, "Let us inspect your ppes with a camera instead of a back-hoe." I'm sure they were rerferring to drain pipes, not supply pipes, but it was still a coincidence and an example of how people notice whatever is current in their lives.

[krw]

They've had remote reading meters for at least forty years. Before that, they sent someone into your basement periodically (every month, some years back).