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I have a water meter which shows reading for the water consumed.

It has a glass cover through which I read the no of units consumed.

Rain water bubbles and vapor were formed under the glass, which is making me unable to read the reading.

Below is an image.

water meter with droplets

How to get rid of these bubbles and vapour? Even if sunlight shines on them, they are not going away.

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    VTC, you don't own the water meter, the water company owns it. If they can't read it, they will change it. Commented Aug 5, 2019 at 12:21
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    @jamesjenkins makes a good point, but where I live the meters are read electronically, so the water company might not notice your problem. However, the point that the meter belongs to the company is valid -- let them know and let them fix it. I would be especially concerned because I would expect the meter to be water tight so what you are seeing may be a symptom of a failing water meter which may start giving false readings, if it hasn't already.
    – Gdalya
    Commented Aug 5, 2019 at 18:53
  • Thanks for your response, yes it could be replaced but I am looking for more creative way for a solution to solve it, like applying any heat to it, but how ?
    – user804401
    Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 4:31
  • Put a water-proof heating pad on it, or use a hair-dryer before reading it. Of course, your electric utility meter will be working harder. Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 3:52

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What I see is appears to be condensation under the glass/plastic meter cover and should not affect the meter operation in the short term. The "guts" of the meter, however, might rust or corrode over a longer period. Yes, even digital/electronic water flow meters have physical/mechanical parts, but the one pictured looks to be a completely mechanical model.

The condensation is probably due to a non-watertight seal between the glass cover and meter body. The only real solution is to remove the viewing glass, blow all condensation out of the meter, let it air dry for a few hours, replace the seal (DON'T reuse the old one), then close it all back up.

As already pointed out, though, the water company owns the meter and they usually do not permit customers to perform any kind of maintenance or repairs to the meters due to the potential for cheating the company. Best to contact the water company and let them decide what to do and then do it.

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The short answer is...try tapping on it a few times with something that's not a hammer. Sometimes, not very often, this will knock loose some of the bubbles. Otherwise, like others have mentioned, this is condensation trapped inside the viewing glass and there's really nothing that will get it out without cracking open the water meter. If the water company cannot read the meter, they will eventually have to replace it. In the meantime, they may be estimating your water usage. Different places have different ordinances about how long a utility can legally estimate water usage before they have to resolve the problem (3 months where I live). Making a query to the company directly at least puts an initial timer in place to prompt them to action, because most utilities are pretty slow to respond. Don't mess with it yourself, or you may be buying a water meter.

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Water meter reader here from a local council in New Zealand. What I’ve learnt works only sometimes is spray some WD-40 or something similar on top of the glass where you need to read the digits. While it doesn’t get rid of the condensation it does make it easier to read, I don’t know how but sometimes it just works enough to be able to read the meter. Hope this helps someone.

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