water flow alarm

dan t.

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,131
Re: water flow alarm

I personaly have never used one but have seriously considered buying the same unit, it looks like it dould save you from an overheating situation from blocked water flow
 

marvinjansen

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
278
Re: water flow alarm

Maybe someone that has used it will reply. I agree it would give warning of an impeller failure or blockage right away. A guage would be nice too.
 

telstar1

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jun 20, 2008
Messages
226
Re: water flow alarm

I put one on my 470 with alpha i drive about 1998.Didnt work that well,even at low setting it would go off, and if I recall right this was not just at idle rpm. It sounded good idea to me but after much fooling around trying to get it to work better I gave up.Seems to me now that even if you got it calibrated so it say would only go off at lowest rpm, if pump did fail at cruise spd the alarm would only sound if you were getting less than idle flow,which would be way less than the flow required to prevent overheat at cruise. In other words you couild easily cook your engine even with this device in good working order.Thats my experience, Ive often wondered if anyone else had better luck.Oh yeah I even tried having a switch to light only so I didnt have to listen to bell when fishing etc,not great success my opinion is one doesnt notice a light on dash soon enough to prevent overheat and you dont always remember to switch it to bell for cruising.
 

Fireman431

Rear Admiral
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
4,292
Re: water flow alarm

I don't want to hijack this thread, but here is something I have debating creating just for this application:

It's a paddlewheel flow sensor which works for even low-flow applications. It would be wired to a digital gauge on the das so you can actually see the water that's flowing at any given speed. Once you know what's flows at what speeds, you would realize when something is off, just like your oil pressure or temp gauges.

This wouldn't help if you weren't manning the helm (fishing, etc) unless you were to carry it a step further and put an adjustable alarm on it.

This is the concept, but with different plumbing, obviously:

http://www.blue-white.com/products/ElectronicFlow/F-2000/F2000Product.asp

Any thoughts?
 

marvinjansen

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
278
Re: water flow alarm

I like the paddlewheel meter. Not too successful finding the right unit on the site you mentioned. Keep us informed as you find one that will work. Good feedback on the aqualarm that didn't really work.
 
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