volume meter?

[kmcace]

Has anyone used a flow/volume meter on their HLT. I want an easy way to measure the amount of water I put into the mashtun. Right now I have a sight glass on a keggel and have to heat up an extra 4 gallons just to be able to see it on the sight glass. I would prefer to only heat up the amount of water that I need. Has anybody used anything like this. I found something on the Home Depot website Water saver usage meter

Thanks,

 

[ehedge20]

I researched these in the beginning and the one you have specified has an accuracy rate of +/- 10%. This means you could be around a half a gallon off at a time. There are other meters out there but they are not worth the money (about $150). I find a ruler to be the best device to measure the amount of water in the kettle.

 

[kmcace]

I can't use a ruler. I have a 3-tier setup so the HLT is up to high. I also have been researching (instead of working) and it looks like these that go on the end of a water hose needs at least 14 psi to get them to work. I do not think that my gravity feed will be enough pressure for them to work. I guess I will just have to have a 4 gallon dead space.

 

[oakbarn]

I have wanted to do the same but need to measure the hot water so I do not think that meter would work well. Also the 10% error is not very good.

 

[ajm163]

some people use a pressure sensor near the bottom inside the HLT. the pressure of the water at the bottom of the HLT will increase at a in a linear fashion in proportion to the volume of water.... you would need some electronics to read the sensor and convert it to volume but it is fairly accurate... a simpler solution would be to put a scale under the HLT as a gallon of water is 8.33 lbs you could just do the math to see where the scale needed to get down to to achieve you desired volume in the MLT

 

[kmcace]

I like the scale idea. Do you think a digital bathroom scale would be accurate enough?

 

[ajm163]

i think most bathroom scales do not do fractional lbs so i would think they would be accurate to +-.5lbs. which (if i did the math right) would be +-.06 gallons or +-6%

 

[ajm163]

just realized it would be +-.06 gallons per transfer not per gallon transferred so if you transferred 5 gallons it would be more like +-1%

 

[Dan]

A simple cost free answer is to measure the water needed into a a container of known volume. Then add in the extra water needed to account for dead space. Drain the usable water and problem solved.

 

[ClaudiusB]

Has anyone used a flow/volume meter on their HLT. I want an easy way to measure the amount of water I put into the mashtun.
Thanks,

My way, water meter post #7


Cheers,
ClaudiusB

 

[DPB]

Pretty cool! Can you reset the meter after each use?

 

[tulsabrewdaddy]

Just know how much is left in the kettle after you drain it fully and account for that in the site glass. With my dip tube I leave about 2 cups in the hlt so I just add a extra two cups to whatever I need.

 

[ClaudiusB]

Pretty cool! Can you reset the meter after each use?

No

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

 

[kmcace]

My way, water meter post #7

Thanks, that is what I was looking for but way more then I want to spend. I think I will look into a shipping scale to put under my 72qt ice chest that I use for a MLT.

 

[Bobby_M]

Maybe I'm not understanding. What is the batch size that is causing an issue? If I'm doing a 6 gallon batch, I'd typically fill the HLT with the total water of say 8 gallons where 4 comes out for strike water (assuming 10lbs of grain and 1.5 qts/lb) and 4 more is for sparge. When ready to dough in, I move the water and watch the HLT sight glass until it reads 4 gallons left. When you're ready to sparge, you drain it empty.

A 11 gallon batch works the same, but I can't heat it all at once. I'll put 8 gallons in first, drain it all. Then fill it to 8 for the sparge and drain all of that.

In other words, I can't figure a reason why you can't see the volumes on the glass without extra water.