Recommended flow meter

[lcavalie]

I looked through he forums but I still have a tough time finding a recommendation for a flow meter that would work well with OpenSprinkler.
Anybody has a recommended piece of hardware that I should get?

Thanks

L

[Ray]

If you search “water meter pulse output” on amazon you can find several choices. They usually have two wires coming out of the meter. There are brand names like EKM or DAE.

There are also smaller and cheaper ones that come with 3 wires — those are usually not very reliable and tend to generate too many pulses per second so I wouldn’t recommend them, although they are still usable with OpenSprinkler.

[lcavalie]

Thank you very much, that’s exactly what I wanted to find out.

[thangln]

Hi Ray,

I wasn’t able to find any two-wire one on Amazon. Just wonder if you can share some links please? Thank you

[D N]

Hello,
I’m also looking for a flow meter, but the only two-wire “pulse output water meter” I can find are on eBay and usually cost much more than AU$77. Most have a display, but I don’t need that – just digital output to my OSPI.

I came across much cheaper Hall Effect Flow Meters, but all of the 3/4″ ones are 3-wire. Would these work at all please?

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/SEN-HZ43WA-Flow-sensor-magnetic-water_60586963647.html

This one appears to be a pulse output “turbine” with 3 wires.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Digital-Water-Flow-Meter-Pulse-Output_62357976205.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.normal_offer.d_title.6b4d5360grukZB

Thank you in advance!

[Ray]

My post above:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/recommended-flow-meter/#post-66055
explains how to search it on amazon. Unfortunately 2-wire meters are generally a lot more expensive. In the US it’s generally $60 USD and above. But they are a lot more accurate and reliable that the cheap 3-wire type.

[Jeremy]

I would like to have better resolution than 1 GPM. Can you recommend any meters with more than one pulse per gallon?

[Ray]

GPM=gallon per minute, which has nothing to do with the flow pulse rate (gallon per pulse). Flow meters have a variety of different pulse rates，there are 0.1 gallon per pulse ones, and some are even lower. If you see any flow meter, check the manufacturing webpage and search other models of different pulse rates.

[Jeremy]

Sorry, that was a typo. I meant to type GPP, meaning gallon per pulse.

I have been looking pretty hard, but I have some additional constraints, namely it will be mounted vertically so I need a positive displacement model instead of jet, and outdoors on 1-inch pipe. From the websites, most of the ones I track down end up only coming in one gallon per pulse.

If anyone has recommendations for specific ones that meet that criteria, that would be helpful.

[Jeremy]

I decided to compromise on my earlier desire to locate the flow meter in the 1″ down-leg of my PVB stack. It will now go in a 3/4″ up-leg ahead of the PVB and PVR (but after a strainer). That means I can use either the Assured Automation WMPD-075 or the EKM VSPWM-075-HD-NSF. I am leaning towards the WMPD-075 as it’s a PD rather than jet technology and has slightly higher pulse resolution (0.05 gallon/pulse vs 0.0748 per pulse). Also its built-in display is a bit nicer and I will occasionally use it, but that’s a minor consideration. However, it’s glass-filed nylon while the EKM is stainless steel. It will be outdoors, but not in a particularly sunny location and Berkeley CA is not a super UV-intensive environment.

Does anyone have useful advice between the two?

https://assuredautomation.com/WM-PD/)
https://www.ekmmetering.com/collections/water-meters/products/3-4-vertical-water-nsf

[Author]

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