Where Can I Buy A Water Meter Key
Fits standard pentagon heads. The socket cavity retains the head during removal, for ease in lifting the lid of a meter box from the frame. The convenient hammer and pick ends assist in breaking ice and clearing debris. A square shank is provided on the socket for applying extra torque.
where can i buy a water meter key
The Meter Services Division is responsible for reading all residential and commercial water meters within the City of Mesquite on a monthly basis. Meter readers read approximately 500 meters per day using hand-held devices and work with the City's Water Billing Office to ensure monthly water bills are accurate. All metered accounts are billed for their monthly water consumption.
Meter Services also provides construction meters to Contractors working in the City of Mesquite. The Meter Shop hours are Monday-Friday, from 7 am to 11 am and from 12 noon to 4 pm. To purchase a meter/meter box or to rent a fire hydrant meter, please see Water Meter Fees for pricing information and instructions or call 972-216-6948.
If you receive a monthly water bill at your residence, then your water usage is monitored by a city-owned water meter. Water meters have numerical readouts that make it easy for you to keep track of the amount of water running through the meter to your home on a monthly basis. To track your usage, please follow the following steps:
Locate your meter: Your meter is normally located in the parkway between the sidewalk and curb and is inside a meter box with a lid. If you open the meter box, keep in mind that you will be held liable for any repairs or tampering fees if the meter is damaged.
Remove the cover of the meter box: Insert a meter key (these can be purchased at a plumbing supply store) into the small hole in the cover and pry it up carefully. Do not open your meter box by hand since insects, spiders, or snakes often nest inside water meter boxes.
Locate the register: Lift the metal lid of the register and wipe off the plastic cover if it is dirty or muddy. When you look at your meter, the register is similar to an odometer which has rotating numbers.
Reading the register: The large sweep hand on the dial measures water use in gallons. One gallon of water passes through the water meter as the sweep hand moves from one number to the next (e.g., 0 to 1). A complete rotation equals 10 gallons. Your meter also has a low-flow indicator, the small triangle (shown below) that turns as water moves through the water meter.
Determine your billing cycle: To accurately track your water usage, you will need to contact Water Billing at 972-216-6208 to determine the first day of the billing cycle that your meter will be read. Record the number on the meter on the first day of the billing cycle. After 30 days, record this number again and subtract the first reading from the second in order to determine your water use in gallons for the month. Remember to multiply by 100 since the City bills in one thousand gallon increments.
Calculate the cost of your water usage: Once you know how many thousand gallons of water that went through your meter, use the Billing Calculation Chart to calculate your monthly utility bill. Please note that your bill reflects usage for the prior 30 days.
Monitoring how much water your household uses: Reviewing your readings over the course of several months will help you spot patterns in your usage, which can be helpful if you are taking steps to conserve water, as well as money! Your water bill also has a 12-month usage graph and can help you track how many thousands of gallons you typically use from month to month.
3. Weatherize exposed pipes and water heaters. Prepare to insulate pipes in unheated and drafty areas, such as an attic or garage. Also check manufacturer recommendations for your tanked and tankless water heaters. Hardware and plumbing supply stores carry insulation to help keep pipes from freezing. Get all supplies now so you are ready to wrap pipes and water heaters when a winter storm is approaching.
4. Learn how to drip faucets properly.After the measures above are taken, drip one cold water faucet slowly if you feel your pipes may still freeze. The faucet you choose should be the one that is the greatest distance from your main shutoff valve. It does not need to be a running trickle. If you do drip your faucet, capture the water for future use. Watch a video about how to drip faucets properly.
5. Outside faucets.Austin Water encourages all customers to turn off irrigation systems during the winter months to help conserve water. Prepare supplies to wrap outside faucets with towels or a Styrofoam insulator.
6. Gather supplies to be prepared.Having one gallon of water per person and pet per day for seven days on hand to help avoid the rush at stores when the first winter storm of the season approaches.
This is a common water meter as found in the USA. Notice the white arrow. Just above it is the shut off valve. The photo is from Google Images. My meter is in a much deeper hole and the valve is much more difficult to reach for those times when I need to do a plumbing repair in the house and need the water to be "off." This Instructable will describe the water meter key I made from scraps welded together.
The end of a commercial meter key is a "U" shaped piece welded onto a long rod. This photo from Google Images shows a commercially produced key on the shut off valve. Most commercial keys are painted black.
This is my finished key that I made from six short sections of various kinds of tubing plus the piece for the handle. The door knob gives you and idea of its length. Because our meter is deeper than usual, I needed a longer key than is usually found in the local hardware store. A note on use of the water meter key: In our part of Idaho we have little rainfall. Our water for irrigating our lawns comes through a system of underground piping about 10 inches in diameter. It is fed by water in reservoirs from spring snow melt in the mountains. Once a week we open the valves in the backyard and flood the entire lawn with about 3 inches of water. The meter box fills with irrigation water and the shut off valve silts over so that it is not visible. My longer meter key is handy for poking around to find the shut off valve in the muddy silt.
To make the key end I attached a 10 inch abrasive cutting wheel to an arbor and manually worked the end of a 1 inch piece of pipe against the edge of the wheel until I had a slot that would fit over the shut off valve in our water box. That would have been sufficient, but I wanted to add a little leverage and make the key easier to align on the shut off valve. So, I welded two small pieces of strap iron onto the end of the pipe.I have not needed this water meter key often, but it works very well. And, I used up some scraps I had without a penny out of my pocket (other than for welding electrodes).
In most cites it is illegal to do anything inside the meter pit. you should check local regulations. in most cases if you need your water shut off at the meter someone from public works will come do it for you. The point is be careful.
You are allowed to turn your water line off in all cities.. This is why the on/off is on the house side of the meter.. The on/off isn't part of the meter.. The city/muni owns everything up to the valve and the on/off back to the house is yours..
Ungh 10 years old. I used to work for a water department. In our municipality it was illegal for the citizens to open the meter pit and do anything in it, regardless of the side of the meter it was located on. Citizens could, and we're required at the Time of construction to install a shut off on their side of the line outside of the meter pit. I should not have said most cities given that my knowledge was limited to one municipality in in one geographic region of the world. When it comes to local rules and regulations, they are piecemeal all around the world. All I'm trying to say is be sure of your local laws, regulations, contracts with landlords, water companies etc. As a side note the shut off was always on the city side where I worked so we could shut the water off and pull the meter out if the citizen cut the lock off that we would put on for non payment
I did not know that. It is curious that local hardware stores and building supply stores, like Home Depot, sell the water meter keys to anyone. That is been the situation in every place we have lived.
I'm not so sure it's illegal in town, but I know it's highly discouraged. Unless it's really an emergency I would touch the water meter shut offs on town. they are old and decrepit, let the utility break something and fix it. if it's ready to break.
. Just the opposite around here - water OK; NGas a no-no. My gas has a seal on the valve that I have to break to turn off the gas when working on my water heater or HVAC (yes, there are shutoff valves at the units, but I don't trust them). When I'm finished I just call the gas company and tell them they need to install a new seal. They will tell me I'm not supposed to do that, but I've never been arrested. Within a few days, they will send someone out to make a cursory check and install a new seal.. Same for the electric meter. If I need to break the seal to work on the power, I just call the electric company when I'm done.. But I live in a small town in the rural South. YMMV - a lot.
I was not going to mention it, but when we were in our first house the main electrical panel went out. There had been arcing between a circuit breaker and one of the bus bars due to old equipment and a loose fit, and the bus bar was eaten away. My father did quality electrical work in rural Iowa, and I often worked with him. A few times we had to work with electrically hot terminals. With that background experience I changed our main panel without interrupting the power. Electrical utilities I have known are very difficult with you if you break the meter seal. I would not recommend it to anyone unless he knows exactly what he is doing. 041b061a72