# Better Tank Monitor



## shooter57 (Sep 23, 2011)

Frustrated by never really knowing the true level of my tanks due to sensor errors and lack of resolution, I bought the iSeries tank monitor by Tank-Edge from CW. I'm very pleased with the look and performance of this monitor. It has the capacity to monitor 4 fluid tanks and 4 LP tanks as well (if your LP tanks have the built in sender), and as a clever bonus displays battery voltage too. Alarms can be set at any level to warn you of either getting too full (black/grey) or too empty (fresh) or sagging battery voltage. They have included mounting holes in the panel behind their stock label for pre-existing switches, so my water pump and heater switches had a new home.

The tank sensors are external to the tank itself, foil tape is applied in two wide strips and one lead of each sensor is stuck to each foil strip. The sensor measures fluid level by capacitance, so no clogged sensors or bad readings.

The manufacturer was extremely accessible via email and phone both, and was very knowledgeable and helpful.

Here's some pics:

The display/control panel. 









I moved the panel to eye level, and covered up the old hole with a blank wall plate. Since my old control panel had a water heater fault light I decided to poke a hole in this plate and mount the LED thru there.









Now I feel like I'm better informed, and can make decisions accordingly.


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## ORvagabond (Apr 17, 2009)

Very nice!


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

Ooh, I likey! Even at $225, it would be a cool electronic goodie to have but how difficult is it to get at the holding tanks? That would be the deciding factor for me, and the fact that we have one big panel containing all of the switches and gauges.


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## shooter57 (Sep 23, 2011)

Insomniak said:


> Ooh, I likey! Even at $225, it would be a cool electronic goodie to have but how difficult is it to get at the holding tanks? That would be the deciding factor for me, and the fact that we have one big panel containing all of the switches and gauges.


I took an exacto knife to the coroplast and cut an access hole. I cut a "U" shaped hole with the bottom of the U at the rear of the trailer, that way hopefully if anything did come loose the air would pass harmlessly over the hole and not be diverted into the cavity. I did cut an extra hole because I didn't realize at first that the frame runs alongside the top edge of the tank going side to side. The foil tape needs to be at least an inch away from any large metal mass. So I cut a second hole at the end of the tank and applied the sensors there. I used the existing wiring for the new sensors, I had a 4 wire flat lead bundle with Brown, Gray, Blue and White. I used brown for the black tank, gray for the gray tank and blue for the fresh tank and connected the blue wire from each sensor to those wires. The red wire from the sensors are all tied together and connected to the white wire in the original wiring. The black lead from the sensor MUST be connected to a GOOD ground or your reading will be incorrect and inconsistent. Luckily there were bolts going to the frame near all my sensors. Once my wiring was all checked out, I used gorilla tape to reseal the coroplast.
It was a bit of work, but I'm really pleased to have a good reading on all my tanks now.


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## bbwb (Apr 4, 2008)

That looks like a good sensor arrangement. If you remove power from the head unit (storing for the winter without the battery) do you have to reprogram the next spring?
bbwb


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