From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: RV Water meter?
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 22:57:52 -0400

David Elmore wrote:

> We have two 40-gal water tanks with one of those crude level meters on one
> of them.  We do a fair bit of boondocking and need to watch the water use
> carefully.  There are a lot of industrial totalizing water flowmeters
> (fairly expensive) but I have never heard of one sold for RVs.  It would be
> nice to have a digital readout in tenths of a gallon that you could zero
> when you fill the tanks.  Has anyone done this?

Sure.  Been thinking about that myself.  The standard old nutating
disk meter like is used for your water service is an option. Here is
one that uses a remote totalizer.  With this one you can bury the
meter element in a cabinet or under the floor or whatever and then
have a small totalizer inside the rig.  The nutating disk design
probably has the best turndown ratio (ratio of maximum to minimum
flow it can measure accurately) of the inexpensive meters.

http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=FTB4600

Another option is a turbine meter.  Not as good a turndown ratio but
a bit cheaper

http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=FTB4000&Nav=k02

As usual, Omega is about twice the price of other sources.  OTOH,
Omega almost always has it in stock and ships within minutes of your
order :-)

John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: RV Water meter?
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 17:38:37 -0400

David Elmore wrote:

> > http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=FTB4600
> >
> > Another option is a turbine meter.  Not as good a turndown ratio but
> > a bit cheaper
> >
> > http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=FTB4000&Nav=k02
> >
> > As usual, Omega is about twice the price of other sources.  OTOH,
> > Omega almost always has it in stock and ships within minutes of your
> > order :-)
> >
> > John
>
> The first one you suggest would work great but it is hard to justify at over
> $400.  I could afford the second at $85, but it would be difficult to mount
> so the number could be read easily and I would like better than one gallon
> precision.


The first url points to a flow meter with the price of $156.  The
"over $400" one was an EXAMPLE to show you how to construct an order
number.  Digikey has LCD totalizers for around $20.  Rat Shack
sometimes has them too.

The second url points to a meter with 0.01 gal resolution.  Click
the picture to get the large one and you can read the dial.  It also
has the option of pulse out for $60 extra.

Please re-read my last paragraph again.  Omega is a handy place to
look up all sorts of things and is a handy place to buy if price
isn't a concern.  They make almost nothing and simply remarket other
people's products.  The cost of the meter listed in url #1 is about
$30 from the mfr or their rep.  Suggest spending a little time at
the Thomas Register web page.

John