Heating oil tank guage

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Discussion

five5

Original Poster:

716 posts

252 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
I recently moved into a house with oil central heating, two tanks in the garden. There is a glass tube on the side of each tank to indicate the level of oil left. Great, except they are so discoloured I can't see through the glass .

Has anyone had experience of alternative gauges? I'm hoping to find something that enables me to avoid my lazy arse going into the garden to check. I've read mixed reviews of the ultrasonic watchman type ones, but finding one that was reliable would be a neat solution.

five5

Original Poster:

716 posts

252 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
That's good to hear, although the ones I can find seem to run on lithium batteries, so I guess yours is older than the current model?

I'm looking at these two

http://www.oilenergymonitors.com/oil-tank-monitors...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watchman-Sonic-Oil-Level-M...

As you'll see, on the second one in particular, variable reviews..

Burwood

18,709 posts

245 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
I use a long stick and dip the tank. Works well.

Check the model of rank and get volume. Fill it.

Spice_Weasel

2,286 posts

252 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
Burwood said:
I use a long stick and dip the tank. Works well.

Check the model of rank and get volume. Fill it.
This ^^. Those Watchman remote gauges do appear to be fairly unreliable. The heating engineers I have used for boiler service plus a bit of pipe re-routing have all said the same.

I've just ordered oil to top up my tank today: circa 30p per litre currently. It's working out cheaper than the gas bill in my old place.

22

2,268 posts

136 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
Another vote for the stick method, I've also been known to peer in the top with a torch held in my mouth - somehow I've managed never to drop one in (although a crisp packet has been in there longer than the 16 years I've been here). You soon get to know how long the oil lasts and only check around the right time for a refill. Not even too heartbreaking at the moment come top-up.

tokyo_mb

432 posts

216 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Still on my first Watchman - about 2 years post installation (and on original batteries). Haven't (yet) had the problems others report.

Have it monitoring a tank about 15m from the house, through relatively thick stone walls. So far has not been a problem, though with it monitoring depth in a cylindrical tank you have to get used to the reported level going down quickly, then slowly, then quickly again - but that's just a function of the way it works.

five5

Original Poster:

716 posts

252 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
Thanks Chaps. So my choices are:

Stick - low cost, risk free, have to get dressed to read the oil level, not a gadget
Watchman - has a cost, maybe unlucky and get a wrongun, can view the levels nekkid if I wish, IT'S A GADGET

hmmmm scratchchin

Etretat

1,333 posts

221 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
I have two Watchmans, one for each tank. eight years now without problems or battery replacement, except I lost one of them due to a power surge which took out a number of other things, modem, phone etc:
I now have them plugged into an anti surge block

NDA

21,479 posts

224 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Burwood

18,709 posts

245 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
quotequote all
Spice_Weasel said:
Burwood said:
I use a long stick and dip the tank. Works well.

Check the model of rank and get volume. Fill it.
This ^^. Those Watchman remote gauges do appear to be fairly unreliable. The heating engineers I have used for boiler service plus a bit of pipe re-routing have all said the same.

I've just ordered oil to top up my tank today: circa 30p per litre currently. It's working out cheaper than the gas bill in my old place.
We had a watchman and it was rubbish. We ran out of oil relying on that, hence the stick.

I also keep a record of all oil used and i can tell accurately month to month(winter/summer) what we use within 10%. I just top the tank off every so many months and make sure i keep 300 litres as a reserve

jjones

4,422 posts

192 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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We have a watchman, it is on the garage shelf.

Use the sight glass as it is accurate and only need to check it every few weeks.

Zyp

14,673 posts

188 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Had a Watchman for over 11 years with no problems.
Replaced the tube batteries twice in that time.

Ours is a 1300 lt tank,, and each level on the Watchman equates to 117 lts
Even when the reading is at zero, the accumulative value is 182 lts, so in reality should never run out....

blade7

11,311 posts

215 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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Got one of those plug in things in the garage, still rely on a bamboo stick long enough to reach bottom of 1000ltr tank.

finishing touch

808 posts

166 months

Tuesday 13th October 2015
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My tank is 1250mm deep.
It holds 1250 litres of oil.
I have a clear tube on the end with a bright red bead inside.
Each mm the level drops equals …… Bugger, I've forgotten what it is now.

Ilovetwiglets

695 posts

167 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
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My gauge was broken when I moved in so I used a long stick...and still do 18 months later. Mark the level before your oil delivery and mark again after so you can work out a pretty accurate level on the side.

PeterTTT

69 posts

125 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
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I have the watchman from the Amazon link for last 5 years fitted to a 2500lt plastic tank. It was in the property when I bought it so no idea how old the unit is. Never had any problems with it at all although I had to replace the small lithium battery a year ago. The plug socket is about 50 feet from the tank and signal passes through several walls. Not sure if it is 100% accurate but I don't try to run the oil down much below a quarter of a tank so never fully tested to empty!
Amazon a great usually if you buy items from them and they go wrong or are not what you wanted so my advice would be buy it and try it ?

SiH

1,822 posts

246 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
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five5 said:
That's good to hear, although the ones I can find seem to run on lithium batteries, so I guess yours is older than the current model?

I'm looking at these two

http://www.oilenergymonitors.com/oil-tank-monitors...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watchman-Sonic-Oil-Level-M...

As you'll see, on the second one in particular, variable reviews..
We've got the Watchman Sonic on our tank and it's been absolutely fine. The display is in the kitchen and is plugged into a socket which is only a few feet from the tank (so I can't comment on longer range) but it's been faultless. There was a little setting up to do which was simple (telling the device if your tank is cylindrical or cuboidal) and it now tells us the level at a glance. I check it every now and again and it's pretty accurate across the range of fullness of the tank.

five5

Original Poster:

716 posts

252 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
quotequote all
Thanks for the input chaps. Decision made - I'm going to go for a couple of Sonic Watchmans with one stick as a backup. Sounds like a lot of problems with these devices could be caused by not being set up properly in the first place - I'll report back after my first 5 years of ownership wink

Burwood

18,709 posts

245 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
quotequote all
five5 said:
Thanks for the input chaps. Decision made - I'm going to go for a couple of Sonic Watchmans with one stick as a backup. Sounds like a lot of problems with these devices could be caused by not being set up properly in the first place - I'll report back after my first 5 years of ownership wink
Belt and braces hehe

If you're new to oil, spend some time working out when you need the system to come on. Our oil runs U/F heating and hot water only. We have it fire up at 0530, off at 9am, on again at 5pm, off at 8pm. Prior to that we had no idea how to work the damn thing (2 separate controllers) plus thermostats in every rooms. Far too complicated. We had the thing running 24/7 and drank 500L in 30 days!

During summer we use less than 2L per day and in winter 6L. Our house is very new and very well insulated. W just had to replace a 5yo boiler which pissed me off. Get the boiler serviced every 12 months and fit a magna flow filter to stop crap from the oil clogged the boiler up. This is what screwed ours.Good luck with it

sparkythecat

7,898 posts

254 months

Wednesday 14th October 2015
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Watchman only works in plastic tanks, doesn't it?