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Henderson’s inline water sensor/gauge.


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Hi,

had my boat since June 2020, water gauge on 850l stainless tank has always been intermittent and not believable, but has now started to show fault condition. If I disconnect transducer and fill tank, it shows a credible full condition, but over the next day or two goes back into fault.

Has anyone had a similar experience and managed to remedy it before I rip it out and replace.

If I have to replace it, any recommendations for a reliable replacement please?

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1. A length of vertical clear plastic tube Td into the feed to the pump, maybe with a little ball in it out f an old hydrometer and a screw down vent on the top. Unscrew the vent to let air in/out and look at the ball height. Screw the vent back down so the pump can't draw air down the tube rather than water out of the tank. Can be enhanced by fitting the tube into a slot in a length of wood and painting the back so you can more easily see the water level.

 

Paint Plimsoll line type makings on the prow so you can  see how high the prow is sitting when static in the water. :giggles:

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Thats the device made by MSC   or is it MCS?   so looks Henderson just rebadge/market it.

 

They are normally reliable though mine has just failed after maybe 20 years.

Talk to MSC about the symptoms, they may well repair it but otherwise will sell you the sensor bit alone which is cheaper than the complete unit.

 

Its just possible that its some sort of plumbing/air vent problem.

 

Mine failed because the O rings went brittle and let water into the circuit board.

 

..............Dave

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10 minutes ago, Callum4878 said:

Thanks Dave, I’ll try MCS, was yours reasonably accurate before failure? Mine could go from full to quarter after running a sink full.

Tony, your plan sounds the most accurate, but would I have to drill the tank for that?

 

Not just accurate but also the simplest and most fault tolerant.

 

No, Just T the plastic tube into the main feed from tank to pump for the majority of boats. If to pump pipe runs up hill to where you can get a T in you may have to put the T by the tank outlet. Also if it's an integral tank that uses the hull as part of the tank you won't be able to see the water level in the tube once its lower than the floor level.

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2 hours ago, Callum4878 said:

Thanks Dave, I’ll try MCS, was yours reasonably accurate before failure? Mine could go from full to quarter after running a sink full.

Tony, your plan sounds the most accurate, but would I have to drill the tank for that?

 

Mine is accurate and repeatable. It only works when there is no water flow so drops to almost zero whenever a tap is running, then returns to the correct value over a few seconds when the tap is turned off.  Essentially it weighs the water in the tank by measuring the pressure, and the pressure drop caused by any flow prevents this.

Are you sure you did not leave the tap running??? ?

 

............Dave

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44 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

I understood they measured the air pressure in the dip tube that would be proportional to the head of water. Same applies if the sender is screwed into the feed pipe but if it is it would react as you describe. If so probably a venturi effect as well.

 

It looks like Henderson sell both types......

 

https://www.hendersons.co.uk/boattank/tank-level-gauge.html

 

I was talking about the first one in this link, it fits on the outlet pipe from the water  tank and should be located at the floor level of the boat.

 

...................Dave

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2 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

It looks like Henderson sell both types......

 

https://www.hendersons.co.uk/boattank/tank-level-gauge.html

 

I was talking about the first one in this link, it fits on the outlet pipe from the water  tank and should be located at the floor level of the boat.

 

...................Dave

 

I think both types measure the air pressure within the sensor and that would be proportional to the head of water in the tank.

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Thanks Dave, mine does pull down when I sees a pressure drop, but doesn’t return to where it should, and last couple of days has been displaying an alarm too.

Think I’ll speak to the manufacturer tomorrow, but will go down the route of Tony’s suggestion also, then for very little outlay I’ll have a backup.

Thanks chaps!

Keith

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Sight tubes are nice things. it should have some sort of cage round it to protrect it from impacts. I am surprised that nobody makes and sells a nice boaty version.

At my old place of work one got smashed due to some younger staff having a quick game of indoor football, it was a big tank, all very messy.

 

...................Dave

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22 minutes ago, dmr said:

Sight tubes are nice things. it should have some sort of cage round it to protrect it from impacts. I am surprised that nobody makes and sells a nice boaty version.

At my old place of work one got smashed due to some younger staff having a quick game of indoor football, it was a big tank, all very messy.

 

...................Dave

That's why I suggested the tube could be put in a slot in a nice piece of wood.

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