Where's your (hidden) water meter?

[Iliketulips]

Had a letter from water provider saying there's a water meter at our property and they're changing us over to water based on meter readings, not rateable value, as it'll be more beneficial.

If you've got a hidden water meter, where is it? I'd like to check it occasionally (as that's how we picked up my Mum had a hidden water leak).

It's clearly hidden as it's not in the room where the stop tap is and the pipe goes immediately into the kitchen, around two behind the cupboards and then under the length of the kitchen floorboards, so that'd be the obvious place as it's a few meters of initial pipework.

Ours is in the pavement under the little metal hatch.

Mine’s under a metal hatch on my driveway

Almost certainly somewhere on the pavement/ path in front of your house

On the pavement outside our house

Under a metal hatch under the grass verge outside my fence. I have to unearth it once a year and check it, to stop Thames Water ripping me off making a mistake.

Water meters are usually external in a hole in the ground. Very hard to read them yourself tbh.

Ours is up the road ( on the pavement!) quite a walk but you can read the meter easily, it’s just mucky. Your provider should be able to tell you where yours is, I rang up and asked as I couldn’t find ours!

Under an enormous shrub in my front garden. It’s infuriatingly inaccessible.

In my back garden, which the water company hates as the whole road has to be walked to get meter readings as the car cant get them. They've just swapped me to a smart meter so they dont have to go into my garden every time. Apparently my neighbour says its to do with how the main pipework is set out it runs differently to how they set out most homes.

It will be outside as PPs say usually pavement in front of house. If it's a smart meter you won't need to check it for leaks as you can look online at the hourly readings and check that at night when it's not used that it is zero.

They aren’t indoors it’ll be by an entrance or garage door - you’ll need a flat screwdriver too prise it open and a rag to clean off the dial - it may have a polystyrene cover to protect from muck falling in.

Ours is in the pavement outside the house.

Thanks for your replies. My Mums is in her house, so assumed it'd be close to where water enters the property. The way it is I suppose, but if you have a leak under your drive, you're not going to know until you get a massive bill!

I actually phoned our provider when we were in our old house about a water meter 25/26 years ago and was told it wouldn't be beneficial to us. Going to be interesting to see if it makes a difference as the same two people in the property of the same rateable value.

I'll go and have a look in daylight when it's not raining to ensure I can read meter.

Unusually, judging by pp, ours is in a cupboard under the washbasin in the main bathroom. Very easy to read.

Ours is in the front flower bed under a round metal hatch.
our neighbours across the road is on the pavement; when the house was bought earlier this year we helped find it only to find it was completely full of water & unreadable. Had to get the Water company out to drain it & find out why it was flooded. Glad it wasn’t ours!

Mines in my boiler cupboard. But I live in a first floor flat so maybe that's why it's indoors 🤷

Mines in my downstairs bathroom behind the toilet

Mine is in the kitchen cupboard under the sink.

Good question and I’m in exactly the same situation. I have a stop tap in the pavement outside which has a water meter on it which has been there for years. Meter reads 00000. So no water has gone through it. The stop tap when turned off doesn’t affect our supply or anybody else’s. We have no other stop tap or indeed no other pipe. The water company seem quite flummoxed.

I should add that I'm in a semi, approx 10 years old and the water meter in the under the kitchen sink cupboard is very easy to read.

On the pavement outside our driveway

Ours are a in the cupboard under the stairs

They can be in the road, in an adjacent road, in the pavement, at the end of your drive or garden, in a neighbours garden or drive, in a field if rural. In a communal hall if its a block of flats. Virtually anywhere, sez me knowingly (worked for a water company many moons ago).

You may well save water if you go on a meter and are also on mains sewerage. For every 100m³ of clean water coming in to the house they say 95m³ goes back down the sewer (as they consider the other 5m³ is lost to evaporation/being used on the garden/cleaning the car etc).

Same can't access even when we open hatch it deep down