Two reasons why you might want to locate and read your water meter include:

1) Learning how much water you use in a day. By reading your meter at the beginning and the end of the day you can compare the two totals to tell how much water you and your family used.

2) Checking for leaks: turn off all the taps in your house, look at your meter and if it still turns, you you might have a leak somewhere.

STEP 1: Locate Your Meter

Your water meter is generally located near the curb or sidewalk in front of your home or place of business in a direct line with the main outside faucet. It is housed in a concrete or plastic box with a metal or plastic lid usually marked "water meter." Carefully remove the lid by using a tool such as a large screwdriver. Please, do not use your fingers. Insert the tool into one of the holes and pry the lid off. Visually examine the area around the meter to make sure there are no harmful insects or other animals.

STEP 2: Read Your Water Meter

If you are a Tacoma Water customer, you pay for your water use, which gets measured by a meter. You pay your fair share of operating the system based upon the amount of water you use. We encourage water conservation and discourage waste to help you keep your bill as low as possible. Many cities use meters to measure water in cubic feet (one cubic foot equals 7.48 gallons). Charges are based on the number of cubic feet of water you use during a billing period.

There are two basic types of water meters. The straight-reading meter resembles an odometer in a car and the old round-reading meter model has several separate dials.

On this first meter register, the reading is taken from the figures shown under the words CUBIC FEET. The meter reads 81,710, which is the total number of cubic feet of water recorded since the meter was installed.

So, if by the next time the meter reader reads your meter you had used 1,200 cubic feet of water, the new reading would be 82,910 (81,710 plus 1,200). Your bill would be figured by subtracting the old number (81710) from the new number (82910). You would then be billed for 1200 cubic feet.

Many water meters have a low flow indicator which is a small triangle that will rotate to indicate when a very small flow of water is passing through the meter. It's important to note that the low flow indicator and large sweep hand are generally used only for testing purposes or to check for leaks.

This register has several small dials and can be a little more difficult to read than the straight-reading meter register. The dials are marked off in divisions of 10, and are read much like a clock, except that the hand on every other dial turns counterclockwise.

To read this meter, begin with the 100,000 dial and read each dial around the meter to the 10 dial (the one foot dial is used merely to show that the meter is functioning). Some meter registers have their smallest measuring hand located in the very center of the register as shown in the upper meter register diagram. If the hand is between numbers, use the lower number.

Therefore, the dials on this register read 80632.

So, if by the next time the meter reader reads your meter you had used 1,200 cubic feet of water, the new reading would be 81832; subtracting the previous reading of 80632 would reflect a usage of 1,200 cubic feet.

Contact Kendall Funk at (253) 502-8488 with questions.