Watchman oil tank monitor not working since filling up.

ripplyuk

I've just had some more heating oil delivered and now, my tank monitor is not working. It just says 'C' and has a constantly flashing LED. I've looked it up and this means there is a connection fault but I haven't a clue what I'm meant to do to fix it. It was working fine before getting filled up today. Does anyone know what I could do to sort this out? I'm never had one of these gadgets before.

uberalles

Any of these any good?

It's literally years since I needed to calibrate the monitor on mine but it is all to do with the size (litres capacity) of your tank and the shape. These obviously affect the reading.

A dipstick in a tank that is 3 feet deep but 12 feet wide will give a different reading of oil left than one that is 12 feet deep and 4 foot wide.

http://www.commercialfuelsolutions.co.uk/downloads/manuals/oil_watchman.pdf

http://www.commercialfuelsolutions.co.uk/equipment/level_gauge/oil_watchman.html

The second link is the monitor I have and there are pdf links for each kind of monitor.

Good luck

ripplyuk

Thanks for that, uberalles. Mine is the monitor in the first link. Unfortunately, it says that the 'C' means it has a connection fault and needs replaced. All I did was add some oil! I didn't think it would break because of that.

Ebe_Scrooge

You could try replacing the batteries. No need to fork out for an expensive replacement "power tube". The end cap of the tube will come off easily after a few gentle "upward taps", if you see what I mean, with an adjustable wrench adjusted so it'll just slide over the main part of the pipe but catch on the end cap. Inside are ( 4, from memory ?? ) bog standard AA batteries.

Failing that, do what I did. Ignore the bloomin' thing and replace it with the latest high-tech gadget that's just on the market - a garden cane. Dip it once a fortnight or so, it's not difficult to judge whether the tank is half full, roughly a tenth full, etc. If you want to be really flashy you can mark your cane into ten increments ( which is all the Watchman does anyway ), but really you don't even need to do that. And I'd even go so far as to say that my "garden cane" method is at least as accurate, and probably more accurate, than the Watchman

MX5huggy

I presume you've turned off and left it a while then turned it on. Can you move it closer to the tank?

Mines a bit hit and miss at times leave it awhile. I have previously changed the batteries as described.

ripplyuk

I have no idea how to turn it off. Mine seems unusual in that it cannot be removed from the socket. It's not in a normal plug socket, it's like it's permanently fixed, hard wired or something. There's no buttons on it at all. The instruction manual from the link posted earlier doesn't seem to explain anything about how to reset it or change batteries etc.

I've been reading reviews for these things and they're dreadful, even the 'new improved' version. Seems they break all the time and are very unreliable. It's a rented house so I'll have to inform the landlord.
Even if it is fixable, I think I'll go back to using the garden pole method, just to be sure.