How to read a water meter
Almost every page that explains this is American or British, so it tells you to count gallons, cubic feet, or something called hundred cubic feet. Your bill is in none of those. A Philippine water bill is in cubic metres, and your meter is built to show them.
There are two kinds of number on the face and you only need one of them.
The short version
- Read the black digits, left to right. Whole cubic metres. This is the billed number.
- Ignore the red ones. Fractions of a cubic metre. They never reach your bill.
- Subtract your last reading. The difference is what you have used since then.
Black is what you pay for
The row of black digits counts whole cubic metres and it only ever goes up. It is the number your water district writes down, and the number on your statement under consumption, in cu.m.
The red digits, or on an older face a red pointer, measure the part of a cubic metre you are in the middle of using. They exist so the meter can be tested and so a slow leak has something visible to move. They are not billed, and you do not need to write them down.
Two readings is what makes a number mean anything
One reading tells you nothing on its own. It is a running total since the meter was installed, so it might be a small number on a new connection and a very large one on an old house, and neither says anything about this month.
Take the black number now and subtract the black number printed on your last statement. That difference is the cubic metres since that reading, and it is exactly the subtraction your district does. If your figure and theirs disagree badly, that is worth a phone call to them before it is worth a plumber.
The one thing the red dial is good for
Shut every tap in the house, including the one feeding a roof tank, and watch the smallest red dial or the small spinning triangle. If it is still moving, water is going somewhere with nobody using it. That is a leak, and you found it without opening anything.
Turn two readings and the hours between them into litres an hour
What is not your side of the meter
A leak on the district's side of the meter, a meter that will not stop turning with everything shut and no water reaching the house, or a reading that has jumped with no explanation, belong to your town water district rather than to a plumber. In Bulacan that is your own town's district and not one provincial number. We will say so rather than charge you to find out.
Where the unit comes from
Maynilad's own guide to reading a water bill gives the consumption unit of measurement as cubic meters, cu.m. Water districts across the country bill the same way, which is why a page telling you to count gallons is describing somebody else's meter.
Checked against Maynilad's "How to read your water bill" page, 25 September 2026.
Questions about reading a meter
- Why does every guide say gallons or cubic feet?
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Because most of them are American or British. A Philippine water bill is in cubic metres, written cu.m., and a meter here is built to show them. If a page is telling you to count gallons or hundred cubic feet, it is describing a meter you do not have.
- Which numbers do I write down?
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The black ones. They are whole cubic metres and they are what you are billed for. The red digits, or a red pointer, are fractions of a cubic metre. They are there so a meter can be tested precisely and they do not appear on your bill.
- How do I work out this month from the meter?
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Take the black number today and subtract the black number on your last bill. The difference is the cubic metres you have used since that reading. That is the same subtraction your water district does, which is why the two should agree.
- The little red dial is turning and nothing is on. Is that a leak?
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It is the best evidence of one you can get without opening anything. That dial moves when water moves, so if every tap is shut and it is still turning, water is going somewhere. Our leak check turns two readings and the hours between them into litres an hour.
- My meter has no red numbers, only dials with pointers.
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Older faces use pointers instead of a digit row. Read them left to right and take the figure each pointer has last passed, not the one it is nearest. The principle is the same: the large units are your cubic metres and the smallest dial is the one that shows a leak.
- Who reads my meter, and who do I ring if it looks wrong?
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In Bulacan it is your own town water district rather than one provincial number, and the province has around two dozen of them. A meter that will not stop turning, or a leak before the meter, is theirs. Anything on your side of it is ours.
If you would rather text
A written message reaches us with the detail already in it, so we know what is wrong before we ring you back. If you would rather send it as a text, the number is on the contact page.
Monday to Sunday, 8AM–8PM
Emergency Repairs Available 24/7
Send us the two readings
Tell us the numbers and the hours between them and we will tell you whether it is worth somebody coming out. A message reaches us whether or not somebody is under a sink.
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