Water Meter

[Justa5th]

I wonder if these capacities are so varied because of the placement of the vent tube , if the tube is in to far wouldn't you get less than stellar holding capacities?

In my case I believe it has to do with the way the tanks are placed. They are not able to expand as they are wedged between the bottom supports and the floor.

[Dawgfever]

So, out of ignorance, let me ask this question...how do fuel tank gauges on vehicles work? Gas tanks are no longer the rectangular boxes under car trunks, but plastic irregular moulds which no longer have consistent volumes per depth but they seem accurate. Would not the same technology work on our water tanks or would other issues such as the tendency of water to either corrode or create deposits be an issue? Just curious...

[boyscout]

I am going to order another one of these water meters and install it on our orange flush hose so we can keep track of how many gallons we're putting into the black tank (when we flush the black tank).

You’d know this, but for the benefit of someone who might not a gauge installed on the black flush input shouldn’t be used to put 40 gallons (or whatever its capacity) of fresh water into the black tank through the black tank rinse. Even a well-maintained black tank doesn’t usually drain to completely-empty so filling it to capacity per the gauge might be more than the black tank can handle.

Ka-sploooosh! I know a guy who was under his trailer, with his arm tightly wedged into a crevice trying to feel things out, when he blew up his black tank by over-filling it via the black tank rinse. Pretty crappy experience.

[JColeman]

I've been using two water meters for a while now. One is on the outlet of my soft water tank so that I know how many gallons we've used for refreshing the salt. The other is attached to the hose bib right after my sediment filter. I use that one to measure total water use and to measure the water that I am using for filling the fresh water tank and using for black water flush. I also pre-fill black and grey with 5 gallons to avoid any odors and let the black tank chemicals get a head start on the system.

[dmendoza]

my 2 cents check this site out: https://www.garnetinstruments.com/pr...monitor-system. This is what im planning to do for my tank monitoring/ looks easy enough.
Chive on!!!

[minytrker]

So I recently installed a water meter (gauge?) on the outlet side of the water filter. Potable water comes from the spigot, through a water pressure regulator, into our 16,000-grain water softener, into our water filter, through the water meter, and into the Nautilus.
Today's project was to pull the potable water drain so I knew I was starting with an empty tank, (then close it) then fill the fresh tank while keeping track of how many gallons it took to illuminate the 1/3 the 2/3 and FULL lights on the control panel inside.
DW monitored the control panel inside and repeatedly hit the display button calling out to me exactly when each light illuminated.
According to Grand Design's website, our freshwater tank is 40 gallons, (tiny I know!) so I was guessing we would hit about 13 gallons for the 1/3 light, and about 26 gallons for 2/3.
Nope. At 25.5 gallons the 1/3 indicator lit up. We got a light on 2/3 with 35.2 gallons and the full light glowed brightly as soon as we hit 42.2 gallons!
These were very disappointing results. I understand why the black and grey tank gauges are always off, knowing what's in those tanks, but this is clean water in a relatively new trailer. It's like they weren't even trying to be accurate.
On a side note, water started coming out the overflow right as I hit 42 gallons.
I have a Sharkbite valve installed so I close that prior to moving, then open it when we reach our boondocking spot.
I got out the trusty label maker and made a slight modification to our display panel so we have a better idea of how much useable water we actually have in the tank when we're out boondocking!
I am going to order another one of these water meters and install it on our orange flush hose so we can keep track of how many gallons we're putting into the black tank (when we flush the black tank).
Here's the water meter if anyone wants to do this...
https://amzn.to/31J1Wm6

Attachment 24813 Attachment 24814

I had that same water flow meter, it must have had a crack in it, it got water in it and rusted taking out the electronics after just a couple uses.