Fresh & Waste Water Gauge accuracy

B

bmangis

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Joined
Jul 30, 2007
RO Number
27869
Messages
24
I have a 2005 2765 with 135 hours on it. Is anyone out there that is concerned with the accuracy with the WASTE WATER GAUGE? I had a new 2005 2465 3 years ago and Chuck at Regal said the sensors aren't that accurate. What do you all think??? I would love your input. Mine works fine but I can empty both and fill the fresh water tank up then when the fresh water tank says it's half full my waste tank says it's ALMOST FULL. I don't pee that much! The 2005 2765 only has 16 gallon holding tanks. I think my gauge sensor is screwed up what do you think?
 
If you have the Fireboy sensor like I do, they just don't work. Wish my dealer would've told me so I could have saved some money. They were accurate for maybe the first couple months but that was it. Now they just read empty at all times. I've gotten used to just "knowing" when head is full.
 
Got the dealer replacing the whole thing right now. My fresh tank is fairly accurate down to 1/4 then it is a guess when it will go empty. My holding tank has to be at least 1/2 full before it the gauge will come off of empty. May just be a design issue but I am getting it replaced.
 
i live near the ocean and every time i get out in it, i make a point of emptying the holding tank regardless of how much is in it. although i now have a filter in the vent line, i'm certain there can be no good come from carrying around waste, its heavy and it is a bad smell waiting to happen. if you don't live near the ocean, i would make a point of emptying the tank every time you take on fuel. if it really bothers you, you can pull the sending unit and wash it out with a garden hose. debris tends to get hung up inside it and make it read incorrectly. hope this helps.
 
My gauge is typically very accurate. My water tank gauge has not given me any problems except the water pick-up tub fell off inside the tank. That was interesting process to fish it out of the tank. My waste gauge and sending unit have worked pretty good also over the years. I have had to pull out the sending tube and wash it a few times because of debris that gets caught between the tube and sending wire. But I always pump out the tank after each trip so it's always left empty between trips.
 
I have a 2001 2960 with the Fireboy water/holding sensor. The water tank sensor seems to work well. Previously, the holding tank always reads full regardless of what is in the holding tank.

I just recently emptied my holding tank...still read full.

So, this weekend I cleaned the sensor. It didn't seem all that dirty (in terms of gunk around the wire). When I plugged the wiring back in, but did not put in the tank, it read empty (which is what I would expect). During this reading, the tube was horizontal, not vertical (since I hadn't installed it back in yet, it was just sitting on the tank).

When I put it back in the tank, it then read half full. My only thought was that maybe some water from all the cleaning starting running down the tube/wire to throw off the reading. I tried it again 10 minutes later and it still read half full (my current hope is that it will magically read empty next time I'm on the boat).

My holding tank is not easy to get to for a visual check...and the boat is relatively new to me so I don't have an idea of how much head use fills it up. Having a working monitor would sure be nice.

Anyone have any other tips for cleaning/fixing the tube/wire/sensor so it will work? It seems like such a simple mechanism. I did find a manual on the fireboy web site, but they didn't have any info on calibration that I could find.

Oh, I absolutely LOVE this boat. :)

-Brian
2001 Regal 2960
"Full Circle"
 
Fireboy Xintex has a new holding (and water) tank monitor that is an improvement over their older FS units. My S/4300 came with the older FS type unit and was plugged or corroded from the first month we had it. Tried cleaning it to no avail. The new unit uses pnuematic pressure and and the electronics do not come into contact with the liquid in the tank. The processor located in the top of the unit measures tank pressure. It's a two wire system that connects to the round LLM gauge found in '06-'07 models. Simple two wire connection; remove the old sender, snip the wiring close to the sender, splice red to red and black to black, screw in sender and connect electrical connection.
 
This season I upgraded my original xintex Fireboy display to the new two wire unit and bought new (traditional sensor) fresh water and new (pressure sensor) holding sensors.

The fresh water I never had a problem with, but the new display requires two wire sensors. So I got the less expensive fresh water sensor that still uses the hollow pvc tube with conductive wire inside.

For hold tank I got the better new pressure based model (they are black). It works like a charm! Display measures up very accurately in 1/4 tank increments to full.

So If you upgrade your display keep in mind you can mix/match the sensors as long as they are the new two wire style.

Also you can use existing wiring ... you just don't use the third wire.

Bob
 
We just wrapped up our 6th season with our Regal 3860 and the original water/waste guages have worked fine.
 
Both of our Regals have had terrible luck with the waste tank sensor. Cleaning them would make them work for a while but it was a VERY nasty job to do. I switched to the Snake River gauge system which uses two metal strips mounted on the outside of the waste tank and I could not be happier. Accurate and they ALWAYS work.
 
So far my water and waste tank sensors have been dead on in our 4080. That's the least of my problems right now anyway. We're on the loop and blew an engine (starboard - Merc 8.1 HO) after we had 30 gal. of diesel added to the tank by mistake. Had it partially pumped out but there was apparently enough diesel to cause the knock sensor to retard the ignition so much the engine quickly overheated and seized. New long block being dropped in tomorrow after two weeks dead in the water. So...sitting here in the marina we've had ample time to use the tank gauges and they seem to be very accurate.

Hope to be heading south this week.
 
Wow Kent, that really stinks!

Didn't the overheat alarm go off?
 
Thanks for the sympathy, Rommer. Yes, the overheat alarm went off about the same time the damage was done so it wasn't much help. Talking to my Mercruiser mechanic, he pretty much confirmed that the alarms are like idiot lights; by the time they go on it's too late. My Faria gauges are generally so inaccurate that I can't put any faith in them either. I had a complete Smartcraft VesselView system installed but I wasn't on the temperature screen at the time. I was more concerned with an accurate tach readout for each engine and a GPH figure. I should have been monitoring the temps more closely but wasn't really concerned at the time. I was told to look for smoke and some rough running but "no damage" should occur. Guess they were wrong.

New engine should be dropped in today or tomorrow and we'll be heading south again soon.
 
I'm just amazed that the damage happen that fast.
 
Well, the head gasket melted, let antifreeze into the block and cylinders and caused a hydrolock, cracking a piston and smashing a spark plug too. It all happened pretty quickly. When I tried to restart it took out the teeth on the starter as well. The new engine gets dropped in on Wed. and we'll do some sea trials before we head south.
 
I' lived with my older style Fireboy holding tank monitor not working all through last season...but I'm thinking of trying to repair or replace it now. It sounds relatively simple to switch over to the new system. I have the 2-tank monitor system (fresh and holding) ...am I correc that I would also need to change out the fresh water monitor as well? (a bit of a shame since that one works perfectly).

In reading the manual for the new Fireboy monitor, it says, "The PTS-XX is constantly measuring tank level but to conserve power the display is only active when the switch is pressed." Does this mean it's always drawing some power at all times?

Thanks for any info,
-Brian
 
Brian I am at lost as far as helping you. The thing is, my problem is everything acts like it needs calibrated or something. All my gauges work but as an example, I have a 28 gal grey holding tank and when we flush the toilet about 6 to 8 times, my waste gauge almost reads 1/2 full and I know that's wrong. A flush is only about 2 quarts. If I put 8 gallons of fresh water into an empty tank it will read that it's 1/2 full. How about yours? Is that what you are experiencing???
 
quote:
Originally posted by kentc

Well, the head gasket melted, let antifreeze into the block and cylinders and caused a hydrolock, cracking a piston and smashing a spark plug too. It all happened pretty quickly. When I tried to restart it took out the teeth on the starter as well. The new engine gets dropped in on Wed. and we'll do some sea trials before we head south.

Click to expand...


Kent

Who is paying for the new engine?
 
quote:
Originally posted by goblehipcom

I' lived with my older style Fireboy holding tank monitor not working all through last season...but I'm thinking of trying to repair or replace it now. It sounds relatively simple to switch over to the new system. I have the 2-tank monitor system (fresh and holding) ...am I correc that I would also need to change out the fresh water monitor as well? (a bit of a shame since that one works perfectly).

In reading the manual for the new Fireboy monitor, it says, "The PTS-XX is constantly measuring tank level but to conserve power the display is only active when the switch is pressed." Does this mean it's always drawing some power at all times?

Thanks for any info,
-Brian

Click to expand...


A late response is better than none.

No, you can replace only the waste sender. Thats what I did as my fresh water sender works just fine.

If the unit uses power all the time it's not apparent. We're on the hook every time out and I haven't noticed any change in battery drawdown.
 
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