Good morning Dallas, Texas. I am Anthony Sumilia with Ask The Experts Radio Show with Talk
Radio 1190. And if you don't mind Roger, tell us a little about Texas Green Plumbing. Texas
Green Plumbing is a full-service plumbing company. We're located in the Richardson area,
but we actually service, we service north of Dallas. We service Richardson, we service
Plano, and a lot of surrounding cities. And we are a full-service plumbing company, but
we actually specialize in slab leaks and leak detection and what I love about that is that
gives me an opportunity to get into a lot of problems that a lot of homeowners don't
actually even understand that they have. A lot of times we will find problems with people's
plumbing because we'll go in to do a sewer/water test, either for a home buyer or a foundation
company that we work a lot with. So that's kind of - that's kind of our specialty. But
like I tell people, at the end of the day, we're a full-service plumbing company. And
I'll tell you what; I've actually got a special guest in here today and I kind of want to
move that direction because at Texas Green Plumbing - to become one of the best leak
detection companies in town you've got to buy the best equipment, and we've invested
a lot of money in leak detection equipment. Whether it be cameras for the sewer line,
special hoses, special locating equipment, but for a water line there's a lot of special
equipment there. And we've actually got about four different brands of product that we use.
But about two years ago I went to New Orleans for a pool and spa show with one of my leak
detection equipment manufacturers and went down there to see Darren at LeakTronics and
he was doing a pool show there and he actually introduced me to Dr. Richard DeVerse and his
son Ryan. And they've got a great product and it was really - this at the time is like,
you know new to market. And it's a device that you actually attach to your meter and
there's an app on your phone and you can actually you can see how much water you use. It's like
the best thing since sliced bread? I tell you what it's just, it's completely different.
It's funny because I actually flew in from Vegas last night and the two guys sitting
next to me, and we talked about it - started to talk about it and they're both like look
I want one of these. And I actually went to Vegas because the pool show was in Vegas this
year, so I actually went out there to see Richard and Ryan and Darren and some other
people. But it's neat because, you know, I tell people like Texas Green Plumbing is a
full-service plumbing company, but we specialize in things a lot of other plumbers don't even
know about. And I think it's great but, you know, bringing new products into Texas Green
Plumbing, whether it's leak detection equipment or what we're fixing to discuss the Meter
Dog, it is what I think help sets us apart from most other plumbing companies. So I've
got as my guest in here today Dr. Richard DeVerse from Meter Dog, he's actually with
a company called Kona Labs over in Kona, Hawaii so - I like Kona. Man... They have a band,
Pepper have you ever heard of the band Pepper? Oh yeah actually my son and kids they're they're
friends with them we get to go backstage. It's actually pretty exciting, you know. They're
really actually a really good group I mean, a really good down-to-earth set of people.
I was in South Florida and we spun their album for the first time so yeah, they're good people.
Just real quick if y'all don't mind I just want to get Rogers phone number out there
it's 972-442-4101. If you want to go online in texasgreen plumbing.com and if you want
to get a hold of Dr. Richard DeVerse of Meter Dog it's meterdog.com at 800-345-2046. I'll
hand it back over to you Roger. Fantastic. First of all, Richard tell me what is Meter
Dog? If I was just, if I just walked up to you on the street at Vegas and I saw your
shirt and it said Meter Dog and I said: what is Meter Dog? What would you tell people?
I would tell people that Meter Dog is a device that is going to prevent you from ever having
to pay a high water bill again or suffer water damage on your house, property or buildings.
It's a way to be connected to your water meter, minute to minute, day to day, it's your finger
on the pulse of your water meter. It's like keeping your heartbeat, always knowing your
heartbeat, knowing how fast it's moving, knowing if it's at normal rate or if it's spinning
out of control and you need to do something about it. So you say minute by minute, how
does it let you know that? Well the way it - the internet of things had to really evolve.
I've actually been on this project for about 10 years, I noticed that, you know, I I purchased
a company called American Leak Detection entity and realized that "hey this water problem
solvable" and so I started seeking out technology, seeking out motivated, great, innovative companies
like yourself, Texas Green Plumbing, who has an interest in solving the water problem for
their clients and actually cares about their clients experience and, you know, how can
I best help my client? And that's what really why I'm here today. That's why I made the
effort to come here is because Texas Green Plumbing has that attitude. I feel it's worth
my time to invest my time and energy in injecting this technology in your business. But what
Meter Dog is, a way for for people just to connect through their mobile device to their
water meter, day to day. So when you say connect through the mobile device, there's - they've
actually got an app and it's very interesting because it lets you see your water usage,
it lets you know the last time your water meter stopped spinning. And it's just it's
really a neat thing because I've literally gone into houses where people had to spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars on repairs because they had a flood on Friday afternoon,
they were out of town, they come back Sunday night and they had no idea their waters been
running all weekend long. Almost everybody who pays a water bill has had some similar
experience where they've been surprised by either the water bill or the - or their you
know, water damage. And this is just a way I thought, how can we solve this problem?
What's the simplest way that we can provide information to end-users where they can take
action for water problems? And this is a actually the end of about about ten years of work.
Eight years of concerted effort. The internet-of-things have finally provided cellphone modems that
are inexpensive enough to purchase and give to consumers at consumer prices that allows
the consumer to be in direct control of their water. So you say cell phone service, so the
Meter Dog actually has its own cell phone connection and communicates? That's correct.
It has its own dedicated cell phone and data plan that is only and strictly designed to
give you a minute to minute information about what's going on with water entering your property.
It's a fifty billion dollar a year problem. People lose 50 billion dollars a year just
in the United States from water damage claims alone. I actually live in Sachse and they
just went to a digital meter and I'm on the Next Door app, I know we've talked about that,
it's funny because I see so many comments every week about people "oh my gosh I got
a bill this week saying I'm using seventy thousand gallons of water, I normally average
eight thousand gallons a month, and this particular month I've got seventy!" Could the information
and Meter Dog be used to either verify that or argue it? Absolutely. It provides - it
actually has a lot of dimensions to it. It'll actually tell you when your meter is failing,
and that's important for a lot of reasons, but this is just a way to allow you to react
to a over-usage or an anomaly or say that you have a normal pattern of use, it can detect
when that pattern is out of range and so you can take action. So not only does it detect
continuous leaks, but it also detects how you use your water, the patterns in which
you use your water and so if you're out of town for example for a couple weeks and you
know and and something kind of goes crazy, you can react to that, you know "hey you know,
when I'm out of town my water numbers about twelve, how come it's 32? I need to get my
plumber over there." And your plumber actually could be connected to you, to the Meter Dog
as well so you don't even, you know, he can actually react faster than you can. Even detect
it sometimes. And I believe in Vegas you got a notification; you've got a leak out - Yes
I do. I had to have my son run over there and said "hey stop that leak!" It was a, yeah,
I have Meter Dog on irrigation my rental property and it's really great because I know if somebody's
in there, my rental property. I know if the cleaners over there doing their work, it's
just really great to see that information day to day. It's almost a, you know, something
that you have to check all the time make sure everything's okay at home. Hey Roger, I hate
to interrupt y'all but let me get y'all this information real quick and let's go to a break.
Absolutely. Once again guys if you want to get hold to Roger you can call him at 972-442-4101
and online at texasgreenplumbing.com or if you get want to get ahold of Dr. Richard DeVerse
of Meter Dog, it's 800-345-246 - I'm sorry, yeah, 2046. That's 800-345-2046 and we will
see each other on the other side of the break. This is Ask The Experts on Talk Radio 1190
and I'm Anthony Sumilia.