Find Your Water Meter and Turn the Water Off
Where Sydney water meters are, how to turn the water off, and how to test for a hidden leak.
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THE SHORT ANSWER
In short
In Sydney, the water meter is usually just inside the front boundary or fence, with the meter tap beside it. Turn the meter tap clockwise to stop the water to the whole property. Sydney Water owns the meter; the pipes from it to your home are yours. To test for a hidden leak, turn everything off with the meter tap on, note the numbers, use no water for an hour, and check again.
WHERE IT IS
Where to find your water meter
- Usually just inside the front boundary or fence of a house, near the street
- The meter tap, which controls the water to the property, is usually right beside it
- If it isn’t at the front, try along the side path, near the driveway or in the front garden bed, and check under a small cover or lid
- In a unit, there may be one shared meter at the front of the complex rather than one for each unit; the stopcock for your own unit is usually common property, so ask your strata manager where it is
- Recycled water meters are purple
- Can’t find it? Sydney Water can help on 13 20 92, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5:30pm
Meters get lost under gardens and paving. Sydney Water’s own meter readers are held up by meters behind locked gates, buried in concrete or dirt, or hidden by trees, plants and grass, and it asks owners to keep the area around the meter clear (Sydney Water). If you can’t reach your meter in a minute, you won’t reach it in an emergency either.
Sydney Water: leak detection; unit stopcocks: common property memorandum, where your by-laws adopt it.
TURN IT OFF
How to turn the water off
- Find the meter tap beside the meter.
- Turn it clockwise until it stops. Don’t force a seized tap: call us or Sydney Water.
- Check a tap inside: the flow should stop.
- To turn the water back on, open the meter tap slowly.
Practise once now, so you know it turns before you need it.
Opening the tap slowly matters: it lets the pipes refill gently and pushes out trapped air without a bang. Expect the taps to spit air for a few seconds the first time you use them. If you turned the water off because of a burst pipe, leave it off until the pipe has been repaired or capped.
IF IT WON’T TURN
A stuck or leaking meter tap
Meter taps that are never used can seize. Don’t use a pipe wrench or pliers: old taps can snap at the spindle, which turns a stiff tap into a burst. Sydney Water fixes leaking meter taps for free within 10 working days if you call 13 20 90, or within 3 hours for $99 with WaterFix Express Meter Taps (Sydney Water).
If water is pouring from a pipe on your side and the meter tap won’t move, call us: a licensed plumber onsite in 30 minutes, guaranteed. Until we arrive, turn off the isolation valve for the fixture that is leaking, if there is one, and catch what you can.
READ IT
Reading your meter
On a mechanical meter, the black numbers on the white dial are the reading, in kilolitres (one kilolitre is 1,000 litres). The red numbers or pointers are litres: you don’t need them for a reading, but they are the ones that move first when water is flowing, which makes them the best leak indicator you have. Smart meters show the reading as a number with a decimal point: the figure to the left of the point is kilolitres (Sydney Water).
Your meter’s serial number, four letters and four digits, is stamped on the meter and printed on your bill. Check it matches before you rely on a reading, especially in a block where meters sit side by side.
THE LEAK TEST
The one-hour leak test
- Turn off every tap and water-using appliance, including irrigation, dishwasher and washing machine.
- Leave the meter tap on.
- Write down or photograph the numbers.
- Use no water for at least an hour.
- Check again: if the numbers moved, you probably have a leak, and a bigger change means a bigger leak.
Common hidden leaks: a toilet cistern running between flushes, a hot water relief valve running constantly, a garden tap, and underground pipes showing as greener grass (Sydney Water). If a licensed plumber finds and fixes a leak you could not see or hear, Sydney Water’s hidden leak allowance can credit 50 percent of the usage charge for the worst quarter (Sydney Water).
Narrow it down yourself: close the isolation valves behind every toilet and watch the red numbers again. If they stop, a cistern is leaking. Sydney Water’s toilet test helps confirm which one: put a small piece of dry toilet paper at the back of the bowl, and if it stays dry until the next flush, that toilet isn’t leaking.
If the numbers still move with the toilets isolated, the leak is in the pipes, and that is a job for leak detection. Full details of the allowance are on water meter and mains leaks.
WHOSE PIPE?
Whose side is the leak on?
| Where | Who | Call |
|---|---|---|
| The meter, the meter tap, or the street side | Sydney Water | 13 20 90 |
| Up to one metre inside your boundary, before the meter | Sydney Water repairs it for free | 13 20 90 |
| Between the meter and your home, and everything inside | You, as the owner | Us |
WORDS YOU WILL HEAR
A short glossary
- Meter tap: the valve beside the water meter that turns off the water to the whole property
- Stopcock: a shut-off valve, often used for the valve that controls a single unit in an apartment building
- Isolation valve: a small valve that turns off one fixture, such as a toilet, sink or hot water system
- Main: Sydney Water’s large pipe under the street that supplies every property on it
- Service pipe: the pipe from the main, through the meter, to your home
- Kilolitre (kL): 1,000 litres, the unit on your meter and your water bill
More plumbing terms are in our glossary.
QUESTIONS
Water meter questions
MORE HELP
Emergency help
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