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Our hot water meter (picture attached) has for the past year been unreadable due to what to me appears to be condensation or steaming under the clear plastic that is covering the meter (though this is just my guess). The plastic does not seem to be removable.

Building maintenance tried drilling a small hole in the plastic a few months ago to avoid having to change the meter, but that doesn't seem to have improved the situation (the small clear area was clear also before the hole was drilled).

I tried to blow on the meter with hot air for a 1-2 minutes using a hairdryer, but that didn't seem to have any effect.

Is there something else that I could try myself to make the meter readable?

Picture of hot water meter

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    Are you sure that is condensation and it is not that the plastic has fogged up? Does the shape of the clear area ever change? Some adhesives can cause plastic to fog like this.
    – HandyHowie
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 10:57
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    Who owns the meter? it would be their responsibility - plus if no-one can read it, how can they charge you appropriately? [In the UK, the power/water supplier owns the meter, not the person who owns the property, & you are not allowed to interfere with them at all.]
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 11:27
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    This would appear to be "building maintenance's" problem to solve. Probably with a new meter (or new meter cover) that they tried to avoid installing when they drilled the unhelpful hole.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:03
  • @HandyHowie I'm not sure and now looking into it it does seem likely that it could be because of fogging up - I edited the question to make it even clearer that I don't really know what has happened. The shape of the clear area does not seem to change.
    – Vilkku
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:36
  • @Tetsujin You are correct, the details for this are off-topic for the question itself, but over here (Finland) the meters are owned by the building (we own the apartment but a separate "building company" owns the building, very common here but apparently not everywhere). Other meters are having the same issue and we are facing having to change the meters in all apartments, which is potentially quite expensive, and costs would be paid by the inhabitants. So I'm not just trying to get correct readings for ourselves, but also see if we could save some money for now
    – Vilkku
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:42

1 Answer 1

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If they drilled one hole, then get them to drill a second and then use a small pump to draw air through to get rid of the condensation - even make an air dryer using those silica gel bags that come with electronic equipment.

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  • The single hole will work for silica gel desiccant, if the problem is actually condensation.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:06
  • How are you suggesting the silica gel bags would be used, just put them on top of the hole?
    – Vilkku
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:44
  • @Vilkku who are you hoping to address?
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 12:59
  • @SolarMike Both of you actually, since you both seemed to have a understanding of how to use the silica gel
    – Vilkku
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:28
  • @Vilkku well, you have my suggestion.
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 13:39

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