Digital Water Flow Meter
A digital water flow meter is a device that measures water flow using electronic measurements to deliver highly accurate readings with digital data output and smart communication capabilities. Traditional mechanical flow meters have several limitations in comparison to modern digital devices: their accuracy can drift over time, they’re often sensitive to sediment and suffer from build-up around their mechanisms, and they require regular manual readings and maintenance.
In contrast, digital flow meters offer low-maintenance, remote, and automatic meter readings, along with long-lasting precision that remains consistent over time.
Against a backdrop of increasing water scarcity, rising water costs, and a dynamic regulatory environment, digital flow meters offer an innovative and modern solution to long-standing problems in water management. These increasingly popular devices offer practical solutions and tangible benefits to residents and landlords alike by enabling enhanced automation, improved operational efficiency, and providing advanced functionalities such as leak detection.
What is a Digital Water Flow Meter?
A digital water flow meter is an electronic flow meter that measures flow electronically and displays its results digitally, via a screen or an app. Different digital water flow meters measure differently, using very different technologies — some meters utilize ultrasonic technology, others employ electromagnetic technology, and some even employ more traditional setups with turbines and sensors.
Digital flow meters offer several advantages over traditional mechanical meters, including more consistent accuracy, easier data collection, and depending on the type of meter, little to no maintenance needs.
The modern, digital nature and sophisticated technology underpinning these digital smart meters enable them to record and identify a wider range of events than traditional mechanical meters, including flow rate, consumption, backflow events, temperature, and various alerts and issues such as low flow and leak detection.
Digital meters integrate seamlessly with smart metering solutions and data management platforms, providing a crucial component of smart metering ecosystems that can help meet regulatory compliance, support water conservation efforts, or aid in achieving broader strategic goals.
How Digital Water Flow Meters Work
Mainlink provides ultrasonic digital flow meters in partnership with Axioma Metering. These innovative devices use ultrasonic technology to measure flow speed and volume electronically. Ultrasonic meters mainly work according to one of two principles: transit-time or Doppler effect.
In transit-time meters, like those provided by Mainlink, an ultrasonic pulse is sent through the pipe along one direction, and the time it takes to reach the end is measured. Then a sound is sent through the pipe in the opposite direction. The meter is then able to calculate the velocity of the flow.
In Doppler effect meters, the ultrasound is passed into the pipe, and the frequency change that occurs as it hits impurities or particles in the water allows the velocity to be calculated. While an effective and accurate method of measurement, the Doppler effect is most effective in water or fluids with a lot of impurities. This means it isn’t the best choice for clean water settings such as residential or commercial buildings.
The data collected by either method is converted into accurate and precise digital readings that can be read on the integrated display or transmitted remotely to the utility or an end-user app. This approach allows continuous monitoring, real-time alerts, and integration with smart metering platforms.
Digital Water Flow Meters: Key Features and Benefits
Digital water flow meters offer multiple tangible benefits due to their modern features. You can enjoy high accuracy, durable devices, and advanced functions that provide peace of mind, support sustainability goals, and enable strategic, data-driven decision-making.
High Accuracy | Accuracy is essential to ensure fair billing, and our ultrasonic meters are highly accurate, with a tolerance of ±1.5% over the standard operating flow. They’re unaffected by pressure or temperature, and allow for consistent, precise, and accurate readings. |
Durability & Longevity | With no moving parts, ultrasonic meters are a long-lasting and low-maintenance option that won’t suffer from wear and tear. Their innovative design minimizes maintenance needs, allowing owners to enjoy lasting peace of mind that their performance — and therefore key metrics such as accuracy — won’t degrade over time. |
Digital Display | An easy-to-read LCD screen makes it simple to check the meters during on-site checks, providing at-a-glance information related to multiple alarms and events, including battery level warnings, leakages, bursts, backflow, empty pipes, low temperature warnings, radio communication, and flow direction indication. |
Smart Connectivity | Wireless connectivity enables these meters to be read remotely and automatically, with data processed and transmitted to the utility without requiring human intervention. This connectivity allows for devices to send data to centralized platforms, where owners and managers can view massive amounts of data. It also allows residents to access more limited data of their own via end-user apps, without requiring anyone to attend to or monitor a meter device physically. |
Leak Detection & Usage Analytics | Our digital water flow meters operate at flows as low as 0.01 gallons per minute (gpm), detecting even microleaks and subtle irregularities in flow or usage patterns. Early detection helps residents address issues before they escalate, saving owners money and potentially preventing water damage. |
Suitable for all property types | Electronic flow meters are a practical and effective solution for all property types — including apartments and multi-family dwellings, commercial buildings such as office spaces, and utilities. Our meters offer flexible installations in any orientation, making them suitable for complex pipe systems, while we offer hot and cold water applications and meters fit for a range of pipe sizes. |
Axioma W1 Ultrasonic Water Meter
When it comes to water measurement, the Axioma W1 Ultrasonic Water Meter leads the way in innovation due to its unmatched accuracy, dependability, and versatility. The W1’s advanced ultrasonic technology ensures long-term stability and endurance by eliminating the need for moving parts to give incredibly accurate readings. The W1 gives consumers the ability to improve water usage, quickly detect leaks, and support sustainable water management practices.
Seamless Integration
Meter placement
An important factor in effective water management is where water meters are placed. Flexibility is king with Axioma Ultrasonic Water Meters like the W1. There is no need for stringent orientation criteria because these meters can be set in any position: horizontally or vertically. This adaptability streamlines the process and reduces any interruptions by making installation easier for utilities and plumbers.
Applications of Digital Water Flow Meters
Digital water flow meters are widely used in various industries and applications worldwide today. They’re an innovative solution to many long-standing problems in water management, from residential to industrial settings, by supporting automation, reducing costs, and helping to meet sustainability goals.
Residential | From single-family dwellings to condos and other multi-family properties like apartments and mobile home parks, digital water flow meters enable landlords and residents to track water consumption accurately, ensuring fair and transparent billing and reducing disputes. Analytics allow for early leak detection, freeze alerts, backflow events, and more. |
Commercial | Office buildings, hotels, retail spaces, and other commercial buildings that require detailed reports and consumption tracking rely on smart water meters to optimize their water usage. They are widely used in irrigation systems for hotels or campuses, are useful in HVAC and cooling tower monitoring, and are experiencing massive adoption for green building certifications. |
Industrial | Meters are used in process control, water supply management, and distribution systems. |
Why choose Axioma Digital Water Flow Meters
Axioma Metering’s ultrasonic meter is designed as a fully digital device. They’re built from the ground up with electronic water flow sensors, eliminating moving parts to reduce the possibility of wear and tear, and featuring digital LCDs for easy readings. They’re a truly modern solution ready to solve modern submetering problems.
Mainlink provides Axioma Metering meters that are:
Durable and long-lived | Robust construction and a design with zero moving parts ensure these meters don’t suffer from wear and tear. The meters are consistently accurate throughout their lifespan of up to 16 years, providing you with peace of mind and reducing the need for costly, frequent replacements. |
Accurate and precise | Axioma’s QALCOSONIC W1 is accurate to ±1.5% over its normal operating flow, and to ±3% from the extended low flow range. It’s sensitive to flows starting as low as 0.01 gpm. This enables our meters to operate in a wide range of situations, including single-family homes, multifamily dwellings, apartment buildings, mobile home parks, and commercial premises. This level of accuracy and precision provides detailed and comprehensive data, enabling advanced functionalities such as leak detection and anomaly identification. |
Compatible with smart metering systems and solutions | The QALCOSONIC W1 is a smart, AMI-ready device with integrated LoRaWAN communication and NFC interface. It’s compatible with other AMI infrastructure, such as data management platforms and other centralized systems for data management and storage, and integrates seamlessly into smart ecosystems. |
Flexible and easy to install | Our meters can be installed vertically or horizontally and don’t need a straight run of pipe before or after the meter. This simplifies installation and offers massive flexibility, as they can be installed in complex pipe systems without worrying about finding the perfect location. |
Designed to capture essential data | Our meters store hourly, daily, and monthly values for all their measured parameters in their internal memory, providing a granular level of data for comparison and analysis. Our meters record total volume (forward and reverse), maximum and minimum flow rate values with dates, operating times (with and without error), error codes, and water temperature. This data gives property owners, managers, and utilities the tools necessary to make genuine strategic, data-driven decisions about water management. |
Technical Specifications of Digital Water Flow Meters
The Axioma Metering QALCOSONIC W1 has multiple practical technical features designed to make it the perfect fit for metering and submetering needs, including:
- Sensitive at low flows starting from 0.01 gpm
- Maintenance-free device
- Up to 16-year battery life
- Flexible installation – no straight pipe required, can be installed horizontally or vertically
- Indoor or outdoor application with IP68 protection class
- Bi-directional flow measurement
- AMI ready: integrated LoRaWAN connectivity
The QALCOSONIC W1 has all the necessary approvals:
- NSF/ANSI/CAN 61
- FCC part 15C
- NTEP
- AWWA C715-18
For more information and detailed technical specs, including available sizes and other technical data, the official QALCOSONIC W1 datasheet has everything you need to know.
Get Started with Digital Water Flow Monitoring
Digital water flow metering is a future-ready technology. It’s designed to address real, modern problems using reliable, effective technology. If you want to learn more about how to utilize digital water flow monitoring to help optimize your water management, Mainlink can help.