How to Read Your Meter

The City of Great Falls uses a remote read system to read the water meters every month. The remote is located on the outside of your house. It is a small black box attached at a point where the water line enters your house. The wiring goes to your water meter. The meter reader has a special instrument that he plugs into the little black box and gets a read. If you want to install siding and need the black box moved, call us at (406) 727-8390. The meter can still be read with just the wires poking out.

The Dial Meter

On a dial meter there are six dials, numbered 0 through 9, with the 0 at the top. Notice that the numbers go around the face clockwise on some dials, but counter-clockwise on every other dial. Read the dials from left to right. When the pointer lies between two numbers, record the smaller number. If the pointer is directly on a number, look at the dial to its immediate right. If that pointer has not passed zero, write down the smaller number. The last two dials are always zero because we read in 100 cubic feet increments. Just subtract the previous reading, and you will have how many cubic feet (7.48 gallons equals 1 cubic foot) you have used.

Odometer-type Meter

Notice that your residential water meter has only one dial. One complete revolution of the small sweep hand equals 21 cubic feet of water usage. The odometer-type register in the middle of the dial registers the hundreds of cubic feet used. (The small triangle in the center of the left meter is a leak detector.) To read the meters you record the numbers from odometer-type register. Since the odometer registers in hundreds of cubic feet you do not record the last two numbers. The last number is a permanent number and the next dial registers tenths. The remaining dials register the actual (in hundreds) water used. Subtract the previous reading from the new reading and you will know how many hundreds of cubic feet of water used.