There is a long, thin, rubber-y line wrapped around/connected to the water line pictured below.
Other angle:
The piece in question is loosely hanging via a zip tie on my main water line about shoulder height and can be moved up/down easily.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2025
99 points (96.3% liked)
What is this thing?
7387 readers
24 users here now
Let us help you identify that mysterious object you’ve found.
Currently in CHALLENGE mode: If you've got something obscure knocking about, post a picture, and let's see how we do. Please prefix such posts with "CHALLENGE:" so we know we've got a fighting chance.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's a device that allows your township to record water usage remotely(that's why it's got an FCC id). Without it, the meter would either need to be on the outside of the house or you'd need to let the meter reader into your house monthly to record the usage.
They send someone around every month to check the water meter? That’s crazy. Why would they do that?
Here I only have to report my water meter’s numbers once a year and that’s self reported. They send me an email and I just enter the numbers on their website and that’s it. I don’t think I ever hand anyone from the water company look at the meter in the 18 years I’ve lived here.
I did get a random water quality test once though.
In the US, water is often supplied by the city, and there isn't really a "flat fee" like in the Netherlands (I'm just assuming we're both Dutch, since I've never seen a non Dutch feddit.nl user).
In the Netherlands we pay something like 100 euros plus 1 euro per liter, and a fixed price for sewage based on inhabitants.
The the US, payment for metered water are without a fixed fee or with a very low one. In Seattle you something like 25 USD, plus ~6 USD per 100 cubic feet, (2.25 per cubic meter). But you also pay something like 18 USD per 100cubic feet of water in sewerage costs. So really, your water bill is around 8 bucks per cubic meter.
And many cities in warmer places have winter and summer pricing for water and sewage. So for a 3 person household using between 50% and 150% of average, that's between 40 and 100 USD per month depending on use.
For a Dutch household, the bill for that same household would vary between 5 and 13 euros per month, since the rest is flat. So nobody really cares if you're off by 25%.