flow meter with display for water tank instead of tank sender

chubby

chubby

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Messages
1,111
Location
hampshire, uk
www.flickr.com
Wish I had fitted a sender to my new tek tank water tank and rather than cut into it an alternative would be to have a flow meter in the pipe to the water pump with a remote display, these seem widely available in the plumbing world, any experience or recommendations? There are some external transducers made by Gobious but these are quite a lot more expensive. With a flow meter you could either calibrate by filling and emptying the tank or just roughly work on the nominal volume: if say 100litres and you have used 50 there is about half left. I see there is the thing I had in mind in the force 4 catalogue.
 
chubby said:
Wish I had fitted a sender to my new tek tank water tank and rather than cut into it an alternative would be to have a flow meter in the pipe to the water pump with a remote display, these seem widely available in the plumbing world, any experience or recommendations? There are some external transducers made by Gobious but these are quite a lot more expensive. With a flow meter you could either calibrate by filling and emptying the tank or just roughly work on the nominal volume: if say 100litres and you have used 50 there is about half left. I see there is the thing I had in mind in the force 4 catalogue.
Click to expand...
We have a flow meter of the simple display of litres since fitted. I have used it once or twice to check how big each tank is but that involves making a note when you switch tanks then subtracting that number as you use it up. I will use it on our cross Atlantic but otherwise with 3 tanks we a fine just knowing when each tank finishes.
 
We fitted a domestic mechanical water meter to the output of the water pump. It is under the sink and has no remote display but not difficult to read, but I think it only cost around £20. We note the meter reading when filling the tanks, so get an idea of how many litres we are using before we run dry. It seems pretty accurate. I can tell you that we have used approx. 14800 litres since fitting this abound 6 years age, about 3 times the weight of the boat!
Angus
 
yotter said:
We fitted a domestic mechanical water meter to the output of the water pump. It is under the sink and has no remote display but not difficult to read, but I think it only cost around £20. We note the meter reading when filling the tanks, so get an idea of how many litres we are using before we run dry. It seems pretty accurate. I can tell you that we have used approx. 14800 litres since fitting this abound 6 years age, about 3 times the weight of the boat!
Angus
Click to expand...
We have a domestic water meter with a pulsed output. You simply install a pulse counter with reset to zero button. You fill the tank to the brim and push the reset button then watch the counter count how many litres you have used from full.
 
yotter said:
I wonder if you can get one where you can set the capacity when filling up to full then count down. That way it would read the available number of litres, less thinking involved:)
Angus
Click to expand...
Its not hard. We have an 800 litre tank. If we have used 500 litres we have 300 litres left. You could always use a calculator?
 
Topargee H2Flow Digital Water Tank Gauge

This is exactly that no drilling or sensor on the tank, simply a flow gauge.

I have just fitted one of these. I had tank sensors but they were never that accurate. I reckon this is accurate to a few lites over 1,300 litres.

Great system and very accurate.

Easy fit - the sensor goes into the water pipe preferably a short distance after the pump, it retains the record of the water used when the power to the unit is tunred off, and can be set to any starting capacity.

Very pleased with mine and as I have two 300 gallon tanks I run one pretty much dry, swap to the other and the gauge does for both.

One of those bits of kit you fit and think that was actually money well spent.
 
I used a similar product to the below link
Very accurate, just remember to reset it each time you refill the tank, tells you how much you have used in litres. I have a 150 litre water tank to easy to work out what is left. I emptied the tank as an experiment and found it was accurate to within 2 litres. That could have been the flow metre or the water in the tube going to the tank was extra, as it said I used 152 litres
Very easy to fit on anywhere on the pipe going from the tank to the water pump
Vyair Digital LCD Water Flow Meter (Count Up) 2.4 - 60.0 L/Min: 3/4" BSP Male | eBay
 
I have the product that Wiggy suggests - very good indeed, and no need to drill into a tank, do any calculations, or reset each time you refill the tanks. The only limitation is when the pump is running the reading is not accurate. Other than that is is excellent.
 
wiggy said:
Or this Fresh Water Level Gauge|Boat|RVs|Marine|Narrowboat|Tank|Inland, which is the same product at £99, quite a saving.
Click to expand...

This is a good find, but I think it is a little different. It seems the gauge is more like a traditional tank meter and doesnt show the actual number of litres used. Also the pipe fitting is more substantial, not that this matters, but may making fitting a little more involved if space is tight.

Never the less it looks a good alternative, and the contrast is nothing to do with having any commercial interest, becasue I dont.
 
Thanks for all the advice, seems there are several products that are just what I wanted, maybe the Vyair or the topargee: the later is in the force 4 catalogue.

There is a video on you tube that makes fitting a flange for a conventional sender to the top of a tek tank tank look very easy, just drill and self tapers from the outside but any drilling into an otherwise intact tank is an irreversible step especially as the tank was a replacement for a leaking mild steel tank!
 
The tek tanks YouTube video looks simple enough to fit the plastic flange from the outside, one 38mm hole and 5 self tappers, to the top of the plastic tank, as easy as that? The flow meter is just cut the pipe and insert, obviously wiring and mounting display is similar for both. The wema snders and gauges seem very standard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top