Is your water meter moving when nothing is running?

Questions about meters and leaks

What unit does a Philippine water meter use?

Cubic metres. The large black or white digits are whole cubic metres, which is what your bill is calculated from, and the smaller red digits or dials are litres, one thousand of them to a cubic metre. This is worth saying plainly because almost every guide you will find online is American or Australian: those meters read in cubic feet, gallons or kilolitres, and following them will give you a number that means nothing here.

How long should I leave between the two readings?

Two hours is enough to show a leak worth calling about. Overnight is better, because a slow seep needs time to add up to a number you can see, and because nobody is using water while they sleep. The one thing that matters more than the length is that nothing is used in between: no tap, no toilet flush, no washing machine, no garden hose.

The meter moved but I cannot see any water. Where is it going?

Usually one of three places, and none of them is visible from inside the house. A leaking toilet flush valve, which runs silently into the bowl and is the single most common cause we find. A buried service pipe between the meter and the house. Or a joint under a concrete slab, which shows up as a warm or damp patch on the floor months before it shows up anywhere else.

Is a small reading always a leak?

No, and it is worth being careful here. A meter that creeps very slightly can be a meter fault rather than a leak, and some older meters register a little movement from pressure changes alone. That is why the check on this page asks for two readings over a measured period rather than a glance at the dial: a rate you can put a number on is something you can act on, a twitching dial is not.