How to Read Your Water Meter

How do I read my water meter? We’ve compiled a simple explanation about reading both analog and digital water meters.
Green Water Meter

While there is an increasing awareness about the need to conserve water, many homeowners don’t know how to read their water meters.

If you want to use water wisely, or reduce your water bill, you first need to understand how much water you’re using. Monitoring your water meter helps achieve those goals. To do this, you need to know how to check your water meter reading.

Water Meter Types

There are two common types of water meter readers: analog and digital. Older meters are typically analog, while the newer meters are mostly digital. Reading a water meter isn’t difficult, if you know some basics about each kind.

Analog meters look like a clock, with hands that move clockwise. There are ten numbers on the face or one full rotation of the meter. When the hand moves past one number, it indicates water usage. This usage will be measured in either gallons or cubic feet (look to the bottom of the face of the meter, where it will indicate the measurement used). So, one full rotation would be either 10 gallons or 10 cubic feet of water used.

If you want to measure your water in gallons, but your meter shows cubic feet, this equation can help you covert the data: 1 cubic foot = 7.48 gallons.

Digital water meters, just like a digital clock, don’t have hands. These digital meters alternate between readings of how much water has been used since the installation of the meter and the rate of usage.

Digital meters might need a flashlight shined on them to activate. Two numbers will flash through the display – the number of gallons used since the meter was installed and then the rate of flow.

A Better Way to Monitor Water Usage

There’s a better way to monitor your water usage – a water metering device, such as bluebot. You could call bluebot a “smart water meter.” Using AI and ultrasound technology, bluebot delivers water meter readings right to your smart phone.

bluebot data for water usage and cost shown on a landlord's mobile phone

With app-enabled, real-time water monitoring, you can easily see how much water you’re using and make decisions that can impact both your bill and the environment. It also allows you to catch leaks in real time.

There are multiple benefits to bluebot for water meter reading. It’s the first universal, clamp-on water meter that fits virtually every pipe.

  • With bluebot, you don’t need a plumber for installation. No pipe cutting required.
  • Setup only takes minutes. Simply download the bluebot water app and follow the in-app illustrated install guide. No tools required.
  • No batteries, no subscriptions needed.
  • You can use one bluebot or multiple bluebots. If you have multiple properties, all of the information will be available, and organized as you choose, on your smart phone. bluebot makes sub-metering easy, so you can allocate costs per tenants’ individual water usage, and bill using that data.

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Why bluebot?

At bluebot, we hope to make reducing water more accessible by making it dramatically more efficient to get data.

Developed by flow industry experts, bluebot gives you app-enabled, real-time water monitoring. Now you can make informed decisions about your usage. Whether you need one bluebot or multiple bluebots, you can connect with your water in more ways than you thought possible.


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