How to Check if Your Water Meter is Faulty

Opening the water bill is never a particularly pleasing experience, but it is at least a predictable one. However, when you open the statement for the month and find that prices have skyrocketed, it can be like a shot to the heart. If your family hasn’t dramatically changed their water consumption lifestyle over the past month, there may be one option you didn’t consider. Could your water meter be broken? It is not common, but it does happen. Unfortunately, even if you are suspicious, it will be a near unwinnable battle to get someone from your water provider to come check, but thankfully there is one relatively simple way to check yourself.

How to Test Your Water Meter

The easiest test you can do to see if your water meter is broken is actually the most obvious one – turn off your water! This actually doesn’t mean closing off the main, because one of the more common issues of increased water consumption is that you actually have leak somewhere in you plumbing. In order to check for a leak, you just need to assure that no toilets are flushing, no sinks are turned on, and someone isn’t taking one of their legendary 45-minute showers. If you can confirm no water is running and your water meter still shows that water is flowing via its little red needle, you have a leak somewhere.

What if the water isn’t flowing and you have confirmed there are no leaks? Well, then it actually might be your meter that is giving you faulty readings. The best way to check is to find a multi-galloned receptacle that you can fill up with an exact measurement. If you check the measurement of water with your water meter and the numbers don’t add up, you have yourself a faulty meter and that needs to be replaced as soon as possible.

If you use city water, you can call out a representative from your water provider to give you a new one, but that is a lot like pulling teeth. It might be easier to call a plumber in to replace it. If you live in the Columbia, Missouri area, Brian Wear Plumbing can help you with everything from testing your water meter to helping you hunt down leaks that are making your water bills catastrophically high.

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