Cistern Water Level Gauge

[hwp]

Do any of you know of any water level gauges for cisterns that are on the market? I did some surfing and found a system in the UK but nothing in North America. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. The old dipstick routine failed again so I am looking for a better system.

 

[scruffy]

I can think of a couple easily done DIY type that would give a reasonable measurement. One would be to mount an inlet and outlet pipe top and bottom connected by a clear plastic (?) tube with a ball in it. Another would be to adapt an old style toilet tank float (or the idea of it) connected to an external guage, board etc that will suggest the level of the water internally in the tank. Winter temperatures will be quite decisive in which style you prefer to construct.

 

[Egon]

Is the cistern buried or above ground?
What about the Tank level indicators that are used on RV's ?

Egon

 

[hwp]

Thanks for the suggetions. You need more information. The cistern is below grade and directly below our laundry room at one end of the house. There is an access door to the cistern in the floor of the laundry room. I would like to mount a guage on the laundry room wall (so that it is readily visible) to indicate how much water is in the cistern. The cistern is actually an integral part of the foundation of the house. One wall of the cistern is accessible from the pump room in the basement. The other three cistern walls are external foundation walls. Freezing is not a concern. The cistern is about 8 feet deep but only holds approx. 23000 litres, or 6000 US gallons or 5000 Imp. gallons. We collect rain water from some of the roofs. When that is not sufficient, we buy water by the truckload, approx. 15000 litres (3800 US gals or 3200 Imp. gals) a load. If we don't use water for anything but household use, a truckload lasts about 3 weeks with no rain.

Rainharvesting Products in the UK (www.rainharvesting.co.uk) has two wall dial models, one with an electic pump (118 pounds sterling) and the other with a manual pump (62 pounds sterling). Pneumercator in Farmingdale, NY (www.pneumercator.com) has an electric analog tank gauge E-14-1 but it looks like a very heavy duty industrial model. I haven't been able to find a price for it as yet.

I would appreciate leads on any other options.

 

[Egon]

Water level:

Can you rig up a float that has a rod comming up as an indictor? Or, float on a stainless steel wire rope with a weight attached. Both the float and weight are in the tank and the rope could be routed to a wall indicator that you calibrate. With some pulleys you should also be able to set this up so the weight is outside the tank.
There are also ultrasonic sensors that would mount on the top of the tank but I am not sure of cost and they can be finicy and difficult to keep in calibration.
Another type would use a pressure sensor set on the tank bottom with low voltage electrical leads going to a gauge which must also be calibrated.
There is also a method which will pump air to the bottom of the tank. Pressure required to pump air will indicate water level.

I've seen all those methods used but am not familiar with sources and costs.
The float and weight should be easy to do and very inexpensive.

Egon

 

[scruffy]

You may wish to take a look at this article about a home built answer to your dilema. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.hometoys.com/tips/tips10.htm>http://www.hometoys.com/tips/tips10.htm</A>
P.S. - Cost around $150. if you had to buy all parts...even calls for water delivery when he hits the 200 gallon left mark!

 

[heehaw]

i've heard x10 is having some problems? our law enf. folks order quite a bit of stuff from them, and they were saying the phones to x10 were not working this week??
heehaw

 

[turnkey4099]

The float and rod would be by far the cheapest and simplest. Shouldn't run over $10 at a guess for a few PVC pipe fittings and pipe long enough to act as a guide for the rod, plus another small diameter pipe for the rod. Float could be any type of can/plastic bottle, etc tht won't leak and can be fastened to the rod.

Harry K

 

[ric]

I have a 25,000 gallon inground block cistern. I have wrestled around with this more than once with mixed results. The best pass I made was using a beach ball attached to a pvc pipe inside a pcv pipe. When the inside stick got down to the top of the outside stick the wire attached to the inside stick would clang the bell on the outside of the house. Lots of issues kept coming up that I finally decided I did not have the time to mess with any longer and it would be just easier to look in the cistern once in a while. Shortly before I moved on to something else I found the water level system they use in Alaska to keep everybody's cistern full. They use an in-tank sensor wired to an outside digital level gage. The gage has a light option you can buy that will light up when its below a certian level. The in-tank unit is made of stainless steel and extends down from the top to nearly the bottom and the wire routes into the house. Seems like the price was $300 for everything and would not take 30 minutes to install and setup. I was told in Alaska where these are used the water guy drives around town and checks the remote gage to see if you need water and adds whats needed. Serach on water gages or water levels using Google and you should find the mfg, seems like they are on the East Coast somwhere. Good luck, ric

 

[wichiwichi]

You can easily do this by rigging up a "bubbler system" using an inexpensive fish tank aerator pump, plastic tubing, and a dial guage incremented in inches of water or feet. Length of the tubing will not matter as long as the free end is close to the bottom. As the air pressure on the line increases until it bubbles out the bottom you will have a linear reading on the dial. This system has been used for many years in water and wastewater systems.

 

[PhilNH5]

Realgoods.com is an alternate energy supplier. They sell float switches usually used to turn a pump on/off to keep a cistern full. Perhaps you could wire one to a light so the light turns on when the water level is low.
This link will take you to the float switch page
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm?dp=1900&sd=1907&ts=1041637>http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm?dp=1900&sd=1907&ts=1041637</A>

Phil

 

[PhilNH5]

Just looked at Realgoods "water" page. They have something called "The Ginny" which is a guage for fuel tanks and water cisterns. No picture but here is the link.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm?dp=1900&sd=1907&ts=3653210>http://www.realgoods.com/renew/shop/product.cfm?dp=1900&sd=1907&ts=3653210</A>

Phil

 

[hwp]

Thanks for the suggestion. I was trying to think of a source of a small air pump but hadn't thought of a fish tank aeretor pump. That should work. There are lots of low water level warning systems available but I was wanting more than that. Now the challenge is to find an appropriate air pressure guage.

 

[wichiwichi]

Or if you don't mind doing the math 2.31ft of water = 1 psi.

 

[hwp]

And that's the problem in finding a reasonable guage because my cistern is only 8 feet deep, so I have a max pressure of about 3 psi.

 

[wichiwichi]

Do you have access to a Grainger store. If so part #'s 2C632 or 5XP57 will get you one up to 100". I believe they are 1 and 2 " increments.

 

[hwp]

Thanks wichiwichi. I found the mfgs part nos on Graingers website so now I can pick one up locally.

Thanks again.

 

[daveg1952]

A friend of mine in Fort St. John has a similar issue with his water supply. I was able to assemble for him a level indicator for about $120.00 bucks. It works on the principle of water conductivity and operates on a 9v battery . While it doesn't tell you exactly how much water you have, indicator lights will tell you that you have less than 30, 60, 90 and 120 inches of water. I can actually wire it to give readings in whatever graduations you like. All that is needed is to toss the sensor into the cistern with a weight attached to it so that it makes it to the bottom of the tank. To check the level he just pushes a button on the indicator. The most expensive part was the wire. He is using about 70 ft so he was able to bring the unit indoors.

 

[schmism]

why not a string on a bobber with a fishing weight attached on the other end, run through a pulley.

 

[daveg1952]

why not a string on a bobber with a fishing weight attached on the other end, run through a pulley.

Might want to use a chunk of copper instead. Fishing weights are usually made of lead which is toxic.
Dave G