"Steamed-up" water meter

[Nick Read]

Hi,

I check the reading on my water meter now and again, and I've noticed recently there seems to be a lot of condensation inside the casing of the meter. This has got worse, to the point the meter now cannot be read due to all the condensation behind the glass. Presumably this moisture won't be doing the mechanism of the meter any good either.

I've tried slowly pouring a jug of hot water over the top of the meter in the hope of dispersing the condensation but to no avail, and of course its causing the hole the meter is buried in to start filling up with water too, probably making the situation worse.

Can water companies read meters using an electronic device now ? Its was only installed about 3 years old ago.

Nick

[James]

The dial on my meter is easily coverered with condensation. There is a small lever which is designed to pass a wiper over the inside surface to clear the dial. However in my case on one occasion Southern Water misread the most significant digit, I complained and they again read the meter. This time they seemed to misread the least significant digit - but this was obviously less of a problem - so I paid the bill. A year later I got an astronomical bill - based on a forward projection from when they misread the leading digit!

So there is a means of removing the condensation - but meter readers still find it difficult to read!

James

[Nick Read]

Thanks for that, I'll have another look and see if can see a lever like that on mine.

They usually don't even bother trying to read the meter here, hence the reason I need to read it myself to see if the estimates are something like reasonable!

[Richard Sterry]

My meter (under a metal flap in my flower bed) suffers from exactly the same problem. There is a domed clear plastic cover, which always has large droplets on inside rendering it impossible to read the digits.

I can only assume the person reading it has to break the seal and then put a new one on afterwards. My last reading was estimated, but looks about right from previous consumption.

We moved into this house from a smaller one, without a meter. There are only two of us (no kids), and despite is making not the slightest effort to conserve water, our water bills are FAR smaller than the water rates at the previous house within the same local authority area. I reckon even with a couple of kids, with the associated extra water consumption, we would still have been better off. Maybe the break-even point is about 3 kids!

Rick

[Nick Read]

Following James' reply I went out & had another look at the meter. There is indeed a tiny plastic lever on the top which I'd never noticed before. Moving this from side to side moves a little wiper across the back of the glass and gets rid of most of the moisture, certainly enough to make it readable - just ! I've lived in houses with water meters before, but its the first time I've had this problem with one, so assumed it was a fault of some sort.

When I first bought this house I shared it with a couple of friends, and even then it cost only very slightly more to have a water meter than on rates. I worked out that for my place the break even point is about 2.8 adults ;-)

Nick

[Pete C]

Hi,

Try putting a thick layer of foam over the glass. Eg. fill a bag with foam or wadding from an old cushion or duvet etc, or even expanding foam (not too much!) and tie or place it over the dial.

cheers, Pete.

[Mary Fisher]

This whole thread has me puzzled. Our meter display doesn't get steamed up but if it did there's be no room to insulate it and pouring hot water over it would be plain silly.

I've wondering if other people's clocks are in different places from ours. Ours in on the wall in the pantry, at eye level (for me at least).

The rising main comes from under the floor, the clock - a very neat device - was attached to the piping before the water goes to the household supply.

Are others' different?

Mary

[Christian McArdle]

I believe it is more to do with gardening. If you don't use a hosepipe, your bills are likely to go down, however many children you have. If you use a hosepipe, (or even worse, a sprinkler) then they are likely to go up.

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

I gather that usually the display is buried several feet underground in the garden.

Christian.

[Mary Fisher]

Oh. Thanks, I didn't know that.

But how, then, does the customer know that the display has condenation?

Come to that, how is the meter read?

I like our arrangement!

Mary

[Christian McArdle]

By opening the access flap. The meter is buried down the same hole as the outside stopcock.

Indeed!

Christian.

[Mary Fisher]

Oh, so there is access and the meterman doesn't have to carry a space to dig under the garden! Again, that's not what I understood by "the display is buried several feet underground in the garden." I imagined several feet of soil ... and posters franticlly digging to see if theirs were steamed up ...

Duh!

Mry

[Nick Read]

That apparently is where they usually like to situate them, but when the man came to fit my meter he saw how well the pipe coming into the house was hidden behind the kitchen units, and asked if I wouldn't mind if they put the meter outside instead.

The problem is, where they put the hole for the meter is in the lowest point of a cracked and uneven concrete drive, so every time it rains the meter hole acts as a drain and fills up with water, doubtless leading to the meter filling with moisture too.

[Mary Fisher]

I see. We're just lucky then. I'm pleased about that - but the stopcock is there too, surely yours isn't behind the kitchen units?

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

I meant stop tap of course!

Mary

[Nick Read]

It is, there's a hole cut so you can reach to turn it, but it wouldn't be easy to get to if it ever needed to be replaced.

The advantage of the meter being outside is that I don't need to be in for someone to read it. That's slightly academic though, because they just send estimated bills anyway!

[Nick Read]

I had thought of temporarily putting a hot water bottle round it to warm it up a bit ;-)

[Brian Sharrock]

Around my area, the meter is on the pavement about a foot or so from the boundary into the house. It's very easy to see which houses have a meter as the flap is about twice the size of the unmetered stop-c*ck flap.[ Some years back the Water Company had a 'free installation if one changed from 'water rates' to 'metered supply.] The meter is readable without entering the garden.

[MBQ]

Ours (and all the others in this area) have a polystyrene plug that fits over the meter before you put the inspection cover back on.

The problem we had was that the "chamber" in which the meter is housed was cracked and filled up with water and silt. i had to get the wet & dry Vax out to be able to read it. We got a free replacement which involved drilling up the pavement and installing a whole new meter and housing. They even estimated the final reading on the old meter in our favour. The whole episode has restored my faith in privatised utility companies.

MBQ

[sPoNiX]

In my last place we had a meter under a flap in the pavement. It was a circular device with a round domed window on the top containing a number of small dials similar to a car speedometer.

sPoNiX