Run the water meter leak test
Annual · typically June
Why it matters
Your water meter watches every drop that enters the house, which makes it the cheapest leak-detection technology you'll ever own. With everything off, that meter should be dead still. If it creeps, water is going somewhere — a running toilet, a weeping irrigation valve, or the expensive one, an underground leak in the service line between the street and your foundation.
If you did this on move-in day, good — this is the annual rerun. Plumbing changes, valves age, and the June slot is deliberate: it catches irrigation-season leaks when they start.
What skipping it costs
$300–$5,000
A silent leak runs 24 hours a day at your expense: a modest underground service-line leak wastes tens of thousands of gallons before the bill makes you look, and a slab or crawlspace leak adds moisture damage to the water bill. The meter tells on all of it for free — most people just never look.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Flashlight, Meter-box key or big screwdriver, Phone camera.
- Shut off every water user: taps, ice maker done cycling, no laundry or dishwasher running, irrigation off.
- Open the meter box (curb or basement) and find the low-flow indicator — the small triangle, star, or dial that spins with even a trickle.
- Watch it for a full two minutes. Dead still: you're done, see you next June. Moving: something's flowing.
- Isolate in halves: close the house's main shutoff. Indicator stops → the leak is inside the house (start with toilets — the dye test on your toilet card finds a silent flapper leak in ten minutes). Indicator still moves with the house valve closed → it's between the meter and the house.
- Photograph the meter reading at night and again before anyone runs water in the morning — the overnight number is your evidence if you call the utility or a pro.
Hire it out
$250–$500National fair range — local labor moves this number.
Professional leak detection runs $250–$500 and earns it only after your free isolation narrows the search — acoustic gear and tracer gas are for pinpointing a service-line or under-slab leak, not for discovering that a toilet runs. Come to the appointment with your isolation results and make the visit end with paint on the ground marking a dig spot.
Know the responsibility line: the utility typically owns meter-to-street, you own meter-to-house. A leak on their side is a phone call, not a check. And service-line replacement pricing spans honest to absurd — trenchless pull-through, open trench, and "we also do landscaping" quotes for the same leak can differ by thousands. Two bids minimum once shovels enter the conversation.
Ask the tech
- Which isolation steps did you run before reaching for the electronic gear?
- Is the leak on my side of the meter or the city's? Who's responsible for which side here?
- Can you mark the suspected location before anyone quotes excavation?
Red flags you're being upsold
- A $500 electronic leak-detection pitch before anyone has done the free ten-minute isolation test you can do yourself.
- Excavation quotes based on a guess. Real leak detection marks a spot; make them commit to one.
- 'Your whole service line needs replacing' from a spinning dial alone — the dial says water is moving, not where or why.
Second opinion time: Any service-line replacement quote over $3,000 — trenchless options vary wildly by outfit, and so do prices.
The call
DIY, twenty minutes, once a year — the meter is a free leak detector the city already installed for you.