Oil Tank Sight Gauges
Many ask us for the best type of contents gauge to fit onto their oil tank. The answer is that it completely depends on your oil tank type! Underneath, we will go into more detail about what this means.
Is It Bunded Or Single-Skinned?
Traditionally, many people had a site gauge, a clear tube running up the front of their tank. Still, these do discolour and fill up with rubbish over a while, and they should not be fitted onto a bunded oil tank as they do not meet the regulations on a bunded oil tank.
As long as they are of a push-button type, they are still ok on single-skin tanks, and we do them with combined filters.
What Sockets Are There On It?
Float gauges are a good option as there is less to go wrong with them, but many plastic oil tanks don’t come with the socket to fit them, and if they are fitted into a steel oil tank, the float can wrap around the internal tank stays.
When a steel oil tank with a float gauge is ordered from us, we add a tube inside to prevent the float from wrapping around the internal tank. Deso bunded oil tanks that we sell also come with a socket that can be fit a float gauge onto. Many other oil tanks on the market do not have this facility.
Remote Reading Content Gauges
Many people now choose to go with a remote reading contents gauge. Watchman and Apollos (two different brand names) are both excellent quality remote reading content gauges. Both have battery power on the tank, and the receiver plugs into any electrical socket up to 250m away from the tank, displaying the fuel level in 10ths.
Apollo Oil Tank Gauges
The downside of these is that there is no gauge on the oil tank for the tanker driver to check your oil tank contents before filling, but the Apollo Visual Oil Tank Gauge does have a display on the oil tank that can also be checked remotely.
However, one issue is that the Apollo Gauges are too tall to fit onto some bunded plastic tanks – especially the Deso Slimline models – if you are unsure, please check with us before ordering. The Envirostore bunded oil tanks we sell come with an Apollo Visual as standard.
Watchman Alarms
Watchman Alarmsare also available with an inbuilt alarm, and the Watchman Alarm usually comes as standard with Titan oil tanks. This monitors your fuel usage, and the plug-in unit will buzz to attract your attention if there is a sudden drop. Of course, this could be due to either fuel being stolen or a bad leak out of your oil tank or pipework, but it wouldn’t work if it were a very small leak.
Watchman Anywhere
The Watchman Anywhere has a SIM card, meaning you can have an app on a smartphone to monitor levels. You can also receive a text or an email once a week with your tank level, making it ideal for monitoring a holiday home, rental property or elderly relative’s oil tank.
We have had a Watchman Anywhere fitted onto our oil tank for several years, and they are great! They are larger than the normal Watchman’s, though, so they might not fit into all bunded plastic tanks – check with us before ordering. You do have to pay a yearly running cost to Sensor Systems (after the first year), which is around £30 pa.
Many oil companies will offer to fit remote gauges onto your tank to offer a top-up service; this is great, so you never run out, but you are tied to one oil company’s prices as you cannot shop around when you need fuel.
There are other more comprehensive oil tank gauges available on the market, which we are happy to discuss with you. We always keep up to date with new products and our helpful staff are always on hand to advise you.
