Is a Holding tank sending unit a good idea?

[Dave22q]

If plastic tank, external foil sensors and gauge under $150. Dennis at WWW.FERRELLOSALES.com can fix you up. I bought 6 months ago and am pleased.

[jeremiason]

I have a Snake River Acu-Gage System on my boat. It monitors both sewage and water with Foil Strips attached to the outside of the tanks.

Snake River went out of business, but their former Nation Sales Manager opened a competing business and sells a quality product.

They make tank monitors for one to eight tanks..

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[peghall]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

Snake River went out of business, but their former Nation Sales Manager opened a competing business and sells a quality product. They make tank monitors for one to eight tanks..

That competing business would be the Profile guages I referenced in my earlier reply.

[Jsta_Rebel]

Sorry. I changed my mind.

[doublewide]

Like Peghall wrote: take a look at SCAD. I have a SCAD on one of my fiberglass holding tanks and it works fine.

[TomLewis]

I just went to our family reunion with son and grandboys in tow. i needed a laugh tonight. Thanks Raymond.

[RaymondR]

Maybe one of these with an audible alarm would do if you just want an overflow warning. All plastic and encapsulated. Switching is by a reed switch inside with a magnet in the float.

A trick we used on offshore oil rigs was to mount the float in a tube which went to the bottom of the tank with fairly small holes right at the bottom. A quart of diesel on top of the mud in the tube would keep it's ID oil wet and the mud would not cake out and jam the float.

[mottseng]

Not have any sensors or sending units on my tank I was wondering how many head visits would it take to fill a 30gal holding tank using a standard Jabsco pump head?

[John_Trusty]

Mottseng - to quote Peggy, about 0.5 - 1.0 gal per flush (your mileage may vary), depending on the "per flush" use. If daysailing only, I find that there is very little solid matter, reducing the flush volume considerably. Be cautious about your tank size. Just because it's rated at 30 gallons does not necessarily mean you'll get 30 usable gallons. On my Catalina, due to tank shape, there is another 2 gallons at the bottom that never gets pumped so is useless. Perhaps a dry erase board in the head with tick marks? Cheaper and more durable than a meter, but a little intrusive.

[mottseng]

John_Trusty, this was exactly what I was looking for. This past weekend we had 5 people on board 3 have never been on a boat. Everytime I looked someone was using the head and went through 4 rolls of double ply. Needless to say I had some major stinky problems to work our later. I too have a tank that slopes leaving a few gallons behind.

Thanks

[Cruisingscotts]

Originally Posted by peghall

Practical Sailor made the SCAD Profile Tank Monitors Scad Tank Monitors their "editors choice" in a shootout with a bunch of others. SCAD is actually just a private label brand name of the Profile systems Profile Tank Monitors available directly from the mfr for a good bit less $$. The sender goes on the outside of the tank, so it can never become clogged. The price for the Solo (single tank) is a bit more than $100 ($105 + $35 for the sender), but you're not gonna find one that works and lasts for more than a year or two without the need to pull out the sender to clean it.

Very cool, that is by far the best product I have seen! We have every imaginable level sensing setup at work and all of them have their own issues. Their exterior tank sending unit setup is a big step in the right direction! Anyone using them have feedback on the longenvity?

[mottseng]

probably will be placing an order soon

[Dave22q]

Cheapest I've found is $125 but it works fairly well. For 2 peiple I would guestimate 1 to 2 weeks. Easy way to find out. Just before your next pump out add measured amounts of water to tank until the filler tube backs up. Then calculate your usage in gal per day and fivide into 30 to determine days to fill.

[pitlaw]

The Scad is the same as the guage offered by Ferriellosales.com. See post #12 above. And if you call as suggestednon the website you will get another discount which makes it cheaper than the Scad. Mine works great for a year so far. It takes the guess work out of filling a tank and when you keep pumping into a fulltank the contents have no where to go but out and under a hose clamp. You then have a whole world of ____.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by mottseng

John_Trusty, this was exactly what I was looking for. This past weekend we had 5 people on board 3 have never been on a boat. Everytime I looked someone was using the head and went through 4 rolls of double ply. Needless to say I had some major stinky problems to work our later. I too have a tank that slopes leaving a few gallons behind.

That would likely be 3.75 rolls too many. My standard briefing to new pax includes instructions on how to use the head, what can go in it, what CAN'T go in it, how much water to use (or not), how much paper is acceptable... and the warning that whoever clogs it fixes it. Agree, or leave the boat now.

The comment about usable capacity is also very germane. Our "40 gallon" tank will hold about 25 gallons, mostly due to the nature of the inlet and outlet hoses. You might consider learning ground truth, by purposely filling it once and keeping track of how much went in during that test.

And then you can do some guess-timating about ground truth for typical flushes, too. Use a known measure to introduce a known quantity of water into the bowl, something that sorta replicates what happens when one uses the toilet controls. Then do some math...

-Chris