# Caution: New water meter boxes - FAFO



## NoslracNevok (Jun 12, 2018)

Well, shoot. My curiosity may be a little costly. I was taking a closer look at my water meter, but it was BOOBY TRAPPED!



As I was praying off this black cap, I noticed it had slight resistance but not much, almost like something was hanging off of it.



As I pulled it off, it snapped and fell down. A real oh s*$t moment. 😳



After some research I believe it is a Aclara brand advanced metering infrastructure device. The black lid, the thing dangling from it, and the cord to the control box appears to be all one replaceable unit to the system.











Since it appears to be a wireless network system, Iexpect a visit from Missouri American water. 👀


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## pp6000v2 (Mar 8, 2021)

Yup, that's the AMI antenna for your utility to read your meter wirelessly/remotely. Your meter may not report, and your utility will come do a manual read. They'll find the problem. Hopefully won't charge you to replace it.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Cross posting here from your thread.

You should be able to access that area. You are responsible for any leaks or issues from the meter to your house. A neighbor had a leak by the ball valve and it was after the meter. He had to pay for the fix + the high water bill.

If they give you trouble, just say that you wanted to check for a leaking noise on the meter, but it was all ok.


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## NoslracNevok (Jun 12, 2018)

@g-man After reading your response on my journal, I looked at it all again and indeed seems they left the Meter Transmission Unit (MTU) hanging when it should have been mounted. At first glance I thought this was a anti-tamper mechanism with the intention of snapping off if the lid is opened.

I emailed Missouri American Water and they are sending someone out. I hope to catch them before the swap it out, seems like a very easy process but I want to ask them some questions.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

g-man said:


> Cross posting here from your thread.
> 
> You should be able to access that area. You are responsible for any leaks or issues from the meter to your house. A neighbor had a leak by the ball valve and it was after the meter. He had to pay for the fix + the high water bill.
> 
> If they give you trouble, just say that you wanted to check for a leaking noise on the meter, but it was all ok.


This is different based on location. A close friend of mine had a line burst under their front yard - They were responsible for everything from the curb to the house inclusive of this pipe. Had it been 6' farther away from the house the $20,000 would be the water companies problem.


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