I have a 1997 355 Aft Cabin MY and I just lost my water tank sending unit. It is 12V, and it is a 1/2" diameter PVC rod that is secured to the sending unit and extends straight down into the tank approximately 14 inches. There is a wire that goes around the PVC from the sending unit to the bottom, then up through the middle of the PVC. I can see a broken wire inside the PVC. I have looked every where for the exact replacement, but have only been able to locate the units that have an arm that moves up and down with the water level. Has anyone had to replace their sending unit, and is the mechanical lever an equivalent replacement? Thanks.
Water Tank Sending Unit
- Thread starter tim f
- Start date
Some sending units, such as the Xintex/Fireboy have two pieces of wire in the tube that are separate wires, as the unit works on the change in capacitance when immersed in water. I had one of those on my last boat. This is what the sending unit looked like:
If you were to look into the end of the tube, you would see the two wires are not connected together. From your description, I am wondering if this is what you have.
The problem with this system is the PVC tends to get dirty (especially in the holding tank - yuck), and needs to be cleaned occasionally. But that is only temporary.
Even worse, the holding tank tends to "burn" the PVC (lots of yukky stuff in there), and that seems to affect the operation of the sensor.
If you have one of those systems, get rid of it.
They used to be OEM on Four Winns boats, and no one that I know that has had one of those systems work very well, and they barely lasted through the warranty period. Every one I know that had one of those systems ended up ripping the system out.
You can replace the sending units, but that gets expensive if you have to do it every year.
If your gauge looks something like this, its definately a Xintex/Fireboy.
I installed a new tank monitoring system on my 325 called "Profile" from a company called New Providence Marine (www.FerrielloSales.Com). It is a capacitive reading system, and anyone familiar with the Snake River Electronics systems, these are basically the same thing. Apparently the chief engineer and salesman had an out with the company and left to start a new company.
But the one thing I like about the Profile system is you buy the display panel separately from the sensors. You then only buy the sensors you need. And, the great thing is that it can display the foil capacitance sensors, and also the standard resistive sensors, such as fuel tank senders. Each channel can be independently programmed for whatever sensor it needs.
The unit I bought has 8 channels, and for awhile, I had the black water tank, two fresh water tanks, two fuel tanks, and even the little injector tank for the head monitored (6 channels out of 8 in use). Since then, I have moved the fuel tanks over to my NMEA2000 monitoring system.
But anyway, I installed the system in 2006 right after I bought the boat, and in that time, I had one sensor fail, which was under warranty. Other than that, the system has been flawless.
Here is the Profile display unit:
And here is the little injection tank for the head (it injects good-smelly stuff each time you use the head). But it shows how the sensor attaches to the tank. You put two self-adhesive aluminum foil strips along the tank outside, then stick the two copper pads from the sensor to the aluminum foil strips. The great thing is everything is solid state and OUTSIDE the tank.
Each sensor is then calibrated to the tank so that you have an accurate full and empty reading.
But one caveat... getting to the fresh water tank under the port-side berth to install the sensor is a bear of a job.
I was so impressed with the system I wrote an article about it. The company even posted it on their web site.
For the record, I did not get any compensation for the article, and neither am I a spokesman for the company. I just found a good product and went with it.
If you were to look into the end of the tube, you would see the two wires are not connected together. From your description, I am wondering if this is what you have.
The problem with this system is the PVC tends to get dirty (especially in the holding tank - yuck), and needs to be cleaned occasionally. But that is only temporary.
Even worse, the holding tank tends to "burn" the PVC (lots of yukky stuff in there), and that seems to affect the operation of the sensor.
If you have one of those systems, get rid of it.
They used to be OEM on Four Winns boats, and no one that I know that has had one of those systems work very well, and they barely lasted through the warranty period. Every one I know that had one of those systems ended up ripping the system out.
You can replace the sending units, but that gets expensive if you have to do it every year.
If your gauge looks something like this, its definately a Xintex/Fireboy.
I installed a new tank monitoring system on my 325 called "Profile" from a company called New Providence Marine (www.FerrielloSales.Com). It is a capacitive reading system, and anyone familiar with the Snake River Electronics systems, these are basically the same thing. Apparently the chief engineer and salesman had an out with the company and left to start a new company.
But the one thing I like about the Profile system is you buy the display panel separately from the sensors. You then only buy the sensors you need. And, the great thing is that it can display the foil capacitance sensors, and also the standard resistive sensors, such as fuel tank senders. Each channel can be independently programmed for whatever sensor it needs.
The unit I bought has 8 channels, and for awhile, I had the black water tank, two fresh water tanks, two fuel tanks, and even the little injector tank for the head monitored (6 channels out of 8 in use). Since then, I have moved the fuel tanks over to my NMEA2000 monitoring system.
But anyway, I installed the system in 2006 right after I bought the boat, and in that time, I had one sensor fail, which was under warranty. Other than that, the system has been flawless.
Here is the Profile display unit:
And here is the little injection tank for the head (it injects good-smelly stuff each time you use the head). But it shows how the sensor attaches to the tank. You put two self-adhesive aluminum foil strips along the tank outside, then stick the two copper pads from the sensor to the aluminum foil strips. The great thing is everything is solid state and OUTSIDE the tank.
Each sensor is then calibrated to the tank so that you have an accurate full and empty reading.
But one caveat... getting to the fresh water tank under the port-side berth to install the sensor is a bear of a job.
I was so impressed with the system I wrote an article about it. The company even posted it on their web site.
For the record, I did not get any compensation for the article, and neither am I a spokesman for the company. I just found a good product and went with it.