2025 Water Meter and Camera System Reccomendations

mobile home university
1

Hi all,

I am looking for an updated thread on water meter and camera system recommendations. Yes, I just spent the last hour going through all the old water meter threads but few of them are recent. I have a 68 lot community in Minnesota that is currently using the old badger brass body meters with remote reads. My park manager reads the remotes monthly. I find it is not a very accurate system for various reasons but because I included a set amount of water in the lot rent and only billed for abnormally high usage it was good enough. Now that water billing laws have changed in the state (positively) and I am due for a rent increase, I am interested in billing the water/sewer back to the tenants in place of the rent increase.

What have owners in cold climates found are the best meters and systems for them?

While not opposed to any of the latest and greatest technology, it is not a necessity.
What is a necessity is a meter that is not destroyed by a freeze up, is accurate, doesn’t cost a fortune, relatively easy to install and repair, long lifespan, and as a bonus would have no internal moving parts like my old badgers. They tend to get debris in them after my plumber repairs a line break and from deuteriation of my old lines.

Mid America Meter has suggested this meter, anyone use it? Sonata Ultrasonic Water Meter - Master Meter

Thanks in advance,
Jason

2

Hey, we were in almost the exact same boat.

I manage a similar mid-size community and we used to have the old Badger brass meters too, with our manager doing monthly walk-by reads. It worked “well enough” for a while, but over time the numbers weren’t adding up, and we were definitely eating some of the water costs.

last year, we switched everything over to a company called Castle Meters. They use Ultrasonic smart meters that report usage automatically, and the setup includes leak detection, remote shutoff valves, and freeze alert in this bad winter and a portal where you can see usage daily and by unit.

It’s been working really well for us, so if you’re at that decision point, I’d definitely recommend looking into it.

Let me know if you want more info, I’m happy to share what I can.

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We’re installing some meters from Dune Labs this month. Ultrasonic (no plumber needed), pretty low startup costs, integrates with our PM software. Guess we’ll see!

4

We use Metron and Next Century sold by Flows.com. We also have the older Badger style meters. Depending on your meter type, you may be able to connect a transponder to it without having to do any plumbing. Check out the TR4 transponder from Flows.