Placement of holding tank sensor

[simdim]

Folks,
I am planning to install Ferrillosales sensor on my holding tank in '88 hull #531 and it looks like that easiest place is the aft side of the tank. However there is a plywood partition that is holding the tank. Should I cut the 4" strip in the plywood to get access to the side of the tank, or get the tank out and install the sensor?
Also while on holding tank subject: I had noticed that at times tank gets pressurized - and I had checked the vent house and it is not obstructed - could it be that tank is just too full (hence sensor installation)?

Cheers,

Simon

[patrice]

- could it be that tank is just too full (hence sensor installation)?

Cheers,

Simon

They say it should be emptied once in a while.....   

[TonyP]

When the gunk is getting on the deck from the breather, you know its too full.

Who said I haven't learnt anything from this site

Tony

[Stu Jackson]

Simon, if you can't slide the sensor down between the plywood and the tank, cut the plywood as much as required.  Moving the tank makes NO sense and is a PITA.  I believe Frederick did a writeup about tank removal and making it bigger.  Do a search on "holding tank removal" to find it.

[Clay Greene]

We managed to get it between the plywood and the holding tank.  But when I called Dennis about putting a sensor on the starboard water tank, he told me that the sensor could be placed on the plywood partition and it would read through the plywood to the tank interior.  I doubted him but he was right - it read just fine.  We had to put some extra spray adhesive on the strip to get it to stick to the plywood. 

[simdim]

claygr,
Do you have an air gap between plywood and tank? I am leaning towards cutting a strip in plywood to allow enough access to the tank, but if it can shoot trough plywood - it makes installation so much easier.
I am also a bit torn between going with Solo monitor or to bite the bullet   and go with 8 tank solution to monitor both water tanks as well.

Cheers,

Simon

[mregan]

Simon
I've been thinking of adding a Solo monitor also.  Was searching around on the web. Someone had made mention of purchasing one monitor, 2-3 sensing strips and a 3 way toggle switch.  They would toggle to see the status of each tank.

[Clay Greene]

We did have room on the stern end between the holding tank and the plywood to get the sensor strip on the tank itself.  The point someone made about making sure the tank is empty may be right - it makes sense that it would expand when full.  It was a tight fit but the sensor strip is not much thicker than a piece of paper.  You need to have part of the sensor strip exposed to attach the leads but that was not a problem, as I remember, as the plywood did not go up the entire height of the tank. 

We did not have that open space for the starboard water tank on the stern end and that was where the greatest depth of the tank is located (it is an odd shaped tank that gets deeper from bow to stern, so putting the sensor any where other than the stern end would give misleading information).  That is why I called Dennis and he advised me to put the sensor strip on the plywood itself. 

I did buy a Solo monitor for just the holding tank first and then decided we liked it enough that we wanted the ability to read all the tanks.  I moved the Solo monitor to the head and installed the bigger unit above the chart table.  It was really nice to see how much water we had left, particularly when cruising for longer periods of time.  In retrospect, it would have made sense to go with the bigger unit first and save on the expense of the Solo, but that's chapter 47 in the book of "I Wish I Had Done It The Right Way First."   

[patrice]

Simon, if you can't slide the sensor down between the plywood and the tank, cut the plywood as much as required.  Moving the tank makes NO sense and is a PITA.  I believe Frederick did a writeup about tank removal and making it bigger.  Do a search on "holding tank removal" to find it.

Out of curiosity, how bigger did he went.
We have a 25gal in ours, that fill the whole space under the port settee, aft section.

[Stu Jackson]

Not sure why one would need a gauge for the water tanks.  Use one with the other shut off.  When the first one is empty, the faucets will sputter.  Then you know you have to fill the first tank up when you're starting to use the second one.  Kinda a LOT less $$  :D:D