Water Meter
The utility-owned device that measures how much water your home uses, usually located at the property line in a buried box or in the basement.
The water meter is where the municipal system hands water off to your home, and where the utility measures every gallon for billing. It typically lives in a concrete or plastic pit near the street, under a removable lid, though in cold climates it may be inside the basement to avoid freezing. The meter belongs to the water company, so while you can read it, repairs and replacement on the meter itself are their responsibility, not yours.
Beyond billing, the meter doubles as a no-cost leak detector. Most meters have a small dial or triangular indicator that spins whenever water is moving. If you shut off every fixture and appliance in the house and that indicator still creeps, water is escaping somewhere, often a running toilet, a dripping valve, or a hidden line leak. This is the standard first test a plumber runs and one any homeowner can do in five minutes.
The meter also marks the legal dividing line of responsibility. Everything on the street side belongs to the utility; everything from the meter to the house, the main water line, is yours to maintain and repair. That boundary matters enormously when a buried supply line fails, because a leak two feet on the wrong side of the meter is a multi-thousand-dollar homeowner bill rather than a utility fix.
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- PSI (Pounds per Square Inch) : The standard unit for measuring water pressure, where residential plumbing typically targets 40 to 60 PSI and code limits incoming pressure to 80 PSI.
- Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) : A spring-loaded valve installed on the main line that lowers high municipal pressure to a safe household level, usually preset around 50 PSI.
- Water Hammer : The banging or knocking in pipes that happens when fast-moving water is suddenly stopped by a closing valve, sending a shock wave back through the line.
- Angle Stop / Fixture Shutoff : The small individual shutoff valve under a sink or behind a toilet that stops water to that one fixture without shutting down the whole house.