Remote oil tank level sensor

[Steve Firth]

Drivel is busy elsewhere.

[geoff]

Dennis, then

[Donwill]

In my previous house I had a700 gall steel tank which lasted approx 11 months from full and never felt the need for a remote sensor. the nozzle was a 0.65/60W which had a firing rate of 2.43 litres per hour. When I first installed the boiler I incorporated a mains hour meter in parallel with the elec feed to the Riello burner. I t's a very simple calculation to assess the fuel used and hence the fuel reserve in the tank. This information was reinforced by a dip stick reading every 2 months or so and was found to be quite accurate.

Don

[Heliotrope Smith]

???

The sight tube is usually teed off the outlet pipe.

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[Huge]

There's nowhere to dip it. We had the tank replaced last August and due to its location, we now have a bunded tank which has neither a place to dip a stick, 'nor a sight tube.

The good news is that my suspiscion was correct; now the temperature has risen back to just under freezing, it's sprung back into life.

[Huge]

Ours doesn't. It's a new steel bunded one. When I asked the installers why it had no sight tube, they said it was because regulations require a minimum number of opportunities for leaks. We do have a mechanical gauge as well as the remote one, which has started working again.

[Tim W]

Huge wibbled on Monday 11 January 2010 09:41

Given that someone else mentioned that many sight tubes are connected to the outlet pipe, could you add one yourself (with a pushbutton valve)? In theory it doesn't even need to be next to the tank - assuming of course the tank is gravity fed to the house.

[Dave Liquorice]

bunded

Sounds like another f*ck up from "progress".

Sight tube - simple, cheap, reliable, accurate, minmal risk of leak with the "push to read" valve.

Remote reader - complex, expensive, unreliable, not so accurate, only thing going for it is the abscence of one joint in the live fuel line.

[Tim Streater]

Also I don't have to go outside to read it and so am more likely to read it daily, an important feature with it only being a 1200 tank.

[The Natural Philosopher]

actually I have found my remote sensor more reliable than a sight glass.

bear in mind commercial electronics is generally specced 0C - 55C only.

Though in general it should work about -15C - 70C.

A chilly chipset may just stop until it warms up.

[Dave Liquorice]

tank.

I read our sight tube once a week. Gives ample warning of running out even when burning >200l/week like we are ATM.

And when do you really need your level indicator to be working? When you are burning lots of fuel. When is that going to be? When it's cold...

[The Natural Philosopher]

oh, indeed, but thats the way the cookie crumbles. Actually its fairly rare to run out exactly in the middle of a cold spell.

and temps < 10C are almost in oil waxing regions anyway, even WITH the additives.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember andrew saying something like:

A float stick poking up through the filler lid, easy. Encased in a transparent tube for waterproofing.

[Arkwright]

I have a watchman plus powered by 4 AAA alkaline cells in a copper tube, old battery read 5.89V when cold and produced the c error changed it for a new one (complete tube) same problem in the cold, new battery was 6.3V when cold, old battery now in the house measures

5.89V still. I'm thinking either the RF link is effected by ice on the tank or the electronics doesn't like the cold. I'm waiting for warmer weather this week.

Arkwright