water meter hard to read - need ideas

Use a hammer to bust the glass. No glass, no foggy, no prob.

Pack that mother f'er with desiccant stuff. Rice might work as a cheap substitute. That stuff will soak up the moisture, and leave your meter clear to take readings. Alternately, seal the meter up more tightly so the moisture doesn't get inside the lid.

Would something like perlite work?

Any ideas for sealing the concrete lid?

I think the moisture's getting there from the water line though.

Take a sledge hammer to it.

Any other ideas, intelligent ones please.

Make up a low reading

Who reads their water meter?

You don't own the meter, right? Call the city and have them fix it.

The city won't fix it, they say they'd have to remove the meter and only do that if the electronics in it fail. I am not allowed to destroy it of course, as they would charge me for replacement.

Would sealing the edges of the glass help to prevent condensation?

I'm trying to get readings because the readings are higher than the water I'm using. For example, the other night I only flushed the low flow toilet three times, and the next day it said 40 gallons had been used.

The spin dial doesn't move when I'm not using water, so there is no leak, but maybe the meter runs too fast when it's used.

According to an article,

condensation on a window occurs when the surface of the window is cooler than the "dew point" temperature of air in contact with the window. Condensation is a result of a combination of surface temperature and moisture in the air.

Window condensation is usually a wintertime situation, when outside temperatures are very low. Condensation can also happen during the summer, when outside air is very humid and inside temperatures are kept relatively cool. Winter condensation occurs on the inside of windows, while summer condensation occurs on the outside of windows.

(1) the condensation is caused by a temperature/humidity differential between the sides of the glass and (2) the condensation forms on the warm side of the glass.

I don't quite understand the point of the article as to what to do in this case, and if sticking a low e plastic on the glass would help to prevent the condensation.

I covered the dial with an old washcloth yesterday afternoon.

This morning the dial was readable!

There was still some fogginess but not like before.

I'm going to experiment with making a cap for the dial and maybe also cover it with window film.

readable dial wrote:

I covered the dial with an old washcloth yesterday afternoon.

This morning the dial was readable!

There was still some fogginess but not like before.

I'm going to experiment with making a cap for the dial and maybe also cover it with window film.

How are you doing with your neuroses?

How are you doing with being so stupid???

It sounds like the glass isn't seated very well around the meter. You need to put some cock around the glass to form a better seal. Just put the cock all the way around. You can use latex cock as it works well in all kinds of weather. You can get cock that matches in color also. Lots of cock should do the trick.

Just use the hair dryer on top of the glass for one minute until the water evaporates.