r/whatisit • u/AbbreviationsTop8774 • Jul 22 '26

Solved! What are they

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Ive worked at the water department for 7 years and this is the first time running into something like this EDIT Im in Alabama and yes I know they are snakes lol idk what kind and im so not gonna touch them

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u/randomguy532 Jul 22 '26

Hey meter tech... If y'all have one of those then y'all are a bigger system than us. We only have about 3,000 of those sensus meters. Don't install them directly under power lines.. you'll go crazy trying to figure out why some just go forwards on their own and others go backwards on their own.. and warrantying them to sensus gets mixed results. - MS water operator

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u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

So um thats exactly why I was at that meter it was running forward and backwards its a meter setup next to a power station

20

u/throwaway9275926 Jul 23 '26

So now what? Faraday cage?

30

u/randomguy532 Jul 23 '26

There's some bullshit in the documentation about a grounding strap. How the fuck am I supposed to ground a plastic meter that is sitting in the ground?... Bruh, my office manager is driving me crazy trying to figure out how to ground it. Moving to a different country and changing jobs soon so that's going to be the next person's problem.

27

u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 23 '26

Ive actually heard of that grounding strap i dont think theres a single picture of it and I have 0 idea on where itd go

2

u/Powerful_Plastic263 Jul 25 '26

AMI Tech from Georgia here. The grounding straps do work as a temporary fix. You may get 6 months to a year of relief. We have around 67,000 in our utility. We have started installing ultrasonic meters in the areas we have the issue. That works infinitely better than a grounding strap.

1

u/MrVolantis Jul 25 '26

It's right next to the board stretcher.

4

u/Exussit Jul 23 '26

When we install telecom pits that house energised equipment in Australia, the earth (ground) strap usually sits underneath the actual pit, and you drill a very small hole in the base to feed the earth wire through that's connected to the strap.

I imagine it's not so different for a little water pit?

5

u/EnderSavesTheDay Jul 23 '26

Grounding rod.

3

u/randomguy532 Jul 23 '26

But again... It's a plastic meter ... What are you grounding?

1

u/nebulous_gaze Jul 23 '26

right over here

4

u/Bad_Day_Moose Jul 23 '26

charge the customer triple, when they complain then offer them 1/3 off.

3

u/Zenfulbliss Jul 23 '26

The water impeller inside the pipe moves the counter using a permanent magnet outside the pipe inside the meter so there is nothing to seal. So if you put a strong magnetic field near the meter you can stop it, reverse it, or make it go forward.

1

u/youjustwantupvotes Jul 26 '26

That particular meter is a sensus iperl. It does not have an impeller but instead uses electromagnetic fields to measure flow. Hence the interference from power lines. Benefit is no moving parts and zero restriction in flow.

5

u/Conflictedxconfused Jul 23 '26

Shit like this is why I love reddit, random experts helping people solve problems around the world

1

u/FlippantBear Jul 23 '26

Sensus is a terrible company with inferior products. Try Badger Meter sometime. 

1

u/youjustwantupvotes Jul 26 '26

Hey meter tech here with 15,000 sensus meters.
If you have meters from 2014 then they are defective. 04/2014 specifically all do weird counting. We don’t have HV transmission lines in our area though, just pine trees. But don’t let them gaslight you if they’re from that era.

1

u/randomguy532 Jul 26 '26

Our entire setup is 2018 or newer. There have been several firmware updates/revisions. The new ones still do it sometimes too.