Rules and procedure for installing water meters: how to install and seal correctly

Installation of individual and common house water meters can significantly reduce the cost of housing and communal services. This encourages residents to use water more economically, since the bill indicated in the monthly receipt is directly determined by the number of cubic meters consumed.

Water meter installers must comply with current water meter installation regulations. The law does not prohibit the self-installation of metering devices, but before that, the homeowner should consult with a sealing specialist in advance about the possibility of inserting a water metering device on their own.

Preparing a water meter for insertion into a pipe

Before installing a water consumption meter, it is necessary to calibrate it, for which the device must be transferred to the municipal department of instrumentation (control and measuring instruments).

At the same time, you can choose a commercial firm that has received the proper license and permits. To find out their address, you should contact the local housing office.

When transferring the meter to the instrumentation, you will need to attach to it a technical passport for the water meter supplied by the manufacturer. After completing the verification procedure, the appropriate fields will be filled in it, and a stamp will also be affixed.

At this stage, it is necessary to provide for the installation of coarse filters in front of the meters

In the instrumentation department, the client will be informed about the date and time of sealing. To pass the registration of the device and register it in the city water utility, the seal must be in perfect condition. Violation of the established seal is prohibited by law.

To install the meter with your own hands, you will need the following parts:

• A special water jet pre-filter is a safety mechanism that prevents large particles of debris and foreign elements contained in tap water from penetrating into the hardware system and can reduce its life. It must be connected to the water meter before installation work begins.
• Check valve (valve) - its main purpose is to prevent unauthorized rewinding of testimony, which is why inspectors always note its presence at the reception.
• Union nuts - with their help, you can dismantle the water meter without damaging pipes and other components of the plumbing structure. In order for all joints with the two previous elements to be impenetrable, tow or FUM tape is required.

IMPORTANT! On the device there are marks in the form of arrows placed by the manufacturer on all its components. These marks indicate in which direction the water jet flows through the apparatus. When assembling the water consumption metering unit on your own, you should strictly adhere to these marks.

If these indicators are not observed, the correct functioning of the water metering unit may be disrupted, and in some modifications, the flow of water may completely stop. The arrow on the device must be reoriented from the shut-off valve inserted into the riser.

The description supplied by the manufacturer with the device includes a diagram of its connection to the water supply. If you are interested in installing a water meter with your own hands, you must carefully follow the attached instructions and the official recommendations of the manufacturer.

ATTENTION! Before sealing the water meters, you should make sure that the arrows on each component are correctly oriented, otherwise sealing will not be possible, since an authorized specialist from the city water utility must check the error-free installation of all structural components.

Stages of installing the meter in the plumbing system

According to existing rules, the device must be placed as close as possible to the point of entry of the pipeline into the room. But in official documents, the concept of “as close as possible” is not specified, since in different types of buildings the pipeline can be located at different points.

Before you install water meters on your own, it is worth considering that working with pipes made of polypropylene or metal-plastic is the easiest. In the first case, they can be quickly cut with a specialized tool or using an ordinary kitchen knife.

To connect the polypropylene components, you only need a small-sized soldering iron that works on a simple heating principle.

The sequence of installation work:

1. After assembling the block, you need to cut the pipe and connect it to the shut-off valve. To adjust the tightness of the joints, you can wind tow or FUM tape.
2. After completing the procedure for the basic connection of the device to the plumbing system, it is necessary to determine the location of the counter thread with high accuracy.
3. Then you should cut off the excess pipe and make a thread at its end or mount a special fitting. You can use a soldering tool to join the polypropylene components.
4. Next, it is necessary to unfasten the check valve with a twisted American union nut from the mounted water meter and put it on the prepared thread.
5. At the end, it is necessary to reconnect the "American" with the device.

The impermeability of all joints is of great importance:

• To find out how tight the connections created during the installation work are, you need to test the meter by slightly opening the valve that disconnects the housing plumbing system from the main riser of the building.
• The absolute absence of leaks in the water supply system indicates that the installation procedure was completed without errors, and the water meter connection scheme was fully observed.
• After completing this stage, you need to call the inspector of the organization that seals the water meters and make an application for sealing the device.

ATTENTION! If the water supply system is made of metal, the tapping procedure is more complicated, since in this situation special equipment will be required to cut pipes and thread threads.

How to choose a company for installation?

Before you put the meters on the water, you should choose the right company. In this matter, you can not make a mistake, so when choosing, you should be guided by the following points:

• The enterprise must have a license allowing it to engage in this type of work. The presence of permits is a guarantee that the company has all the required equipment and professional tools, and that its employees have the appropriate qualifications.
• The possibility of servicing the metering device under the guarantee issued to the client, free restoration of its performance in the event of breakdowns or replacement in case of fatal violations during the warranty period.
• Issuance of official documentation (a contract for installation and an act on the work done), necessary in order to register the device and put it on state records, warranty service.

ATTENTION! An institution that has a licensed permit for installation work bears all obligations to verify the suitability of the devices and the accuracy of their insertion. The water meter installation scheme must be worked out by an employee of the company, he must also check its compliance with the requirements of state organizations and strictly follow it during installation.

List of required documents for metering devices

Upon completion of work on connecting the meter to the tap, the homeowner, the employee of the DEZ and the employee of the installer draw up a document on the delivery and acceptance in three copies.

These papers must contain information about the industrial numbers of metering devices, the date of their installation, information about the owner of the home, the authorized DEZ and employees of the enterprise. The act must be signed by all parties involved.

In addition to this document, the owner must be issued with:

• certificate of verification of the water meter, including the day of the subsequent verification of the device (based on the modification, it is performed at intervals of several years);
• registration certificate for the flow meter, which contains the initial flow rate, the day of tie-in and commissioning.

The use of this equipment has a positive impact on the conscientiousness of the performance of their own labor duties by the employees of the water utility. The reason for this is that flowmeters make unreasonable write-offs to end users of operating costs that occur in networks with a high level of wear and tear impossible.