Heating oil tank guage

[five5]

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]

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..

[five5]

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

[five5]

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