[LeRoySmith]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

Too many people report the same 12,500 or 25,000 gallon increase for there to be nothing to this. At the same time, it is only 6 - 12 reports per year. I don't believe the meters are infallible; I don't believe any electronics are infallible. My computer needs to be rebooted about once a month, my car electronics have glitched once or twice in three years, I don't believe the water meters are 100% bulletproof.

In this thread you have someone who used a second set of electronics to read what the mechanical part of the meter was sending. I'm sure this was not the first month the second reading was made which implies the readings have matched well in previous months.

Now there is a 12,500 gallon difference. What happened? Did the second set of electronics fail to detect that much additional usage? Possible, but if the same people in the same house went about the same activities as they had in previous months and the second meter shows the same reading then I would hesitate to question it.

On the other hand, there is a history of complaints of unexplained high readings from meters of the same type as the primary meter. There are only a small number of complaints each year over the 80,000 or so meters in use in the area. Most of the complaints have been dismissed with statements that the meters work, the meters don't fail, there is no idea where the thousands of gallons of water went, but since there is no evidence that the meter is faulty the homeowner must pay (yes, there is a waiver available now).

In this case there is evidence that the meter is giving an incorrect reading. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

If someone were convinced that they were being cheated they could hire a plumber to purchase and install another water meter directly behind the utilities meter. The second meter could be used to verify or dispel the utilities meter reading. If it was a quality water meter and it disputed the utilities meter I'm confident it would get some attention. This would be an expensive option but it would certainly provide some solid data.