Oil Tank Level Monitor

ilikecookies

We converted to oil recently and the tank came with an Oil Watchman included. It's not proved very accurate from day one. Indeed the only good thing I can say about the LPG tank which we replaced was that it's guage (which read a %) was much more accurate!.

For example, on our first fill we put 500 litres in and it only read one bar - it should have read two bars as there are 10 bars (250 litres per bar). We thought we cracked it when we filled the tank and it did read the full 10 bars. However, in a very short space of time it lost a bar which worried me greatly as I thought how the heck did we get through 250 litres that quickly! Thankfully we hadn't. Installer has double-checked the calibration and can't find anything wrong.

In the end I decided to contact the manufacturer of the tank and they suggested using a garden cane and gave me the measurements for my tank to equate the level to litres. This has proved much more accurate but more hasslesome. I suppose I could have requested a replacement monitor from Watchman but I couldn't be bothered as most folks suggest they are not accurate.

I am really tempted by the new Apollo Smart which can apparently monitor your consumption in real time and tell you how many litres you are using per day and what this costs but I am concerned it won't be terribly accurate either.

jess1974

I've had oil for 7 years and use a garden cane aswell, i have still managed to run out twice, but hubby has always managed to get the boiler going again when we've had a delivery......

bobmedley

I've just fitted the new Apollo Smart - checking it's accuracy is going to take a while whilst we burn off the oil & we only fill up once a year.

However, as a start I just added 1,500 litres and the monitor went from 360 litres to 1,705 litres indicating that it's something like 8% out i.e. c92% accurate.

It's an old tank, so it has a sight gauge on the side as well meaning I can see when it's getting really low & I don't have to rely on the Apollo Smart entirely.