I first became aware of water meter failures when I started researching water leaks. I was on the buy team for a company called American Leak Detection. I was a founder of a company that was interested in buying American Leak Detection (ALD) from its original founder. ALD was the Franchisor of the ALD Brand, techniques and methods specific to solving leak problems. It was our job to provide new technology to the new asset so the franchisees could earn more solving more leak problems. The first thing I had to do was become a leak pro. I set to work learning all I could about leaks and how they came about and how one could find and fix them most effectively and efficiently. This research put me in direct contact with water meters and I began to use them daily in my work. I began to record the failure modes of these meters as their performance was important to my clients with leaks. Before we proceed we must differentiate between water meters. What I will talk about here are “typical” water meters. What I mean by this is the kind that is between you and the water authority and has a disk magnet on top of a nutating disk water meter. The magnet on top drives a register sitting on top of the meter. What is supposed to happen is the water runs through the meter turning the nutating disk. The nutating disk turns a magnet and this rotating magnet is sensed by the register as water flow. Other types of fluid and water meters will be discussed in another blog post.