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    #1

    Diesel fuel flow meters-gctid816802

    I want to add diesel fuel flow meters to my EH700ti engines. I don't want to spend $1,000,s so am looking for alternatives. I tried one from Ebay for $80 odd which looks very impressive but does not work at all.

    Can anyone give me an alternative that gives me a fair idea of usage without being exact as I will never willingly go below 200 liters in reserve. I'm more interested in the most economical RPM than anything else but like to run at + or - 14 to 15 knots at 2400 RPM when travelling any distance & use around 35 liters per hour. If I drop to 2100 RPM I can run at 11 to 12 knots on the plane but have not checked the amount of fuel we use. It would be nice to know the usage at different RPM,s say 2,000, 2050, 2,100, 2,150, 2,200 & so on & so forth I do know that at low RPM & 10 knots we use very little around 15 liters per hour on both engines as I recently dropped a trim tab so could go no faster. Most times I am not happy at these low speeds.
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    #2
    There are some electronic options to fuel flow meters. For example, my Simrad chartplotter has a feature called "TripIntel" where it calculates and learns fuel consumption over time. You need to provide it with a fuel level sensor that converts the analogue fuel sender to NMEA 2000. It basically plots the % full data from your fuel tank over time and can then tell you fuel consumed, MPG and estimated fuel range.

    It looks like Furuno make a similar PC-based software application: http://www.furunousa.com/ProductDocu...Management.pdf that similarly takes Fuel Level data and plots it over time.

    These guys also seem to be thinking along these lines: http://www.interactio.co/marine-products

    Neither option is real "fuel flow" but more like "fuel usage" which does get you the same result.
    Terry

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      #3
      I Have a almost new chart plotter so will check if it has this facility. Thank you.

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        #4
        Hey guy's listen to what Terry had to say about www.interactio.co/marine-products I have been doing a lot checking on there flow meter. Wireless and easy to install. Since both of my engines draw off the same tank. I will insert unit in to fuel line before it spits of to the water separators. The info says the battery will last for a full season. The price is right compared to most flow meters. Just install the App on your smart phone, which I have already done, and you are set to go.
        Just love being on my 3870............Bill
        1985 3870
        Twin 130 Mits. not turbo charged
        Name of boat is "Plenty Of Fish"
        Live on board full time.
        North Myrtle Beach, SC

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          #5
          "Old Man With A Boat" post=817102 wrote:
          Hey guy's listen to what Terry had to say about www.interactio.co/marine-products I have been doing a lot checking on there flow meter. Wireless and easy to install. Since both of my engines draw off the same tank. I will insert unit in to fuel line before it spits of to the water separators. The info says the battery will last for a full season. The price is right compared to most flow meters. Just install the App on your smart phone, which I have already done, and you are set to go.
          I had a quick look at the web site - nice gear and plenty of upgrade options.

          A word of caution though. I think they are only offering gas/petrol metering.

          With diesel flow meeting you require two sensors per engine. One sensor for fuel drawing from the tank and another for excess fuel returning to the tank. The monitoring equipment calculates the difference between these two sensors and gives the operator an overall consumption.

          Ian B)
          Ian & Emma
          MV "LaPaloma"
          1990 4588
          Bay of Islands
          New Zealand

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            #6
            Yes that's true, talked to the guy at the boat show. You need 2 for a diesel, and set it up on the app to read the differential. But you get MPG, GPH, miles left in the tank. Its the way I will go!
            Brett & Elise, Sammy + Wilson
            New Addition - 2002 Trophy 2002WA FF Optimax 135
            GO HAWKS!

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              #7
              The Interactio guys are in my home town so I reached out to them and I'm going to grab a coffee in a couple weeks with the founders. IMHO their real goldmine in their offering is the "Cloud" portion of what they do because it makes it dead simple to then do analytics on the data. If they could gather fuel level, RPM, GPS and data off an hour meter, it's just simple math to figure out fuel usage, mileage, optimal RPMs etc....

              If they could make their "Gateway" device talk to existing NMEA devices that may already exist (or really ANY sensor) I think they'd have a really strong product.
              Terry

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                #8
                There is an apples ,n oranges conversation going on when we talk fuel FLOW vs fuel USEAGE. To really know the fuel flow at any given instant, the sending unit must be physically connected to the fuel. That gives you real-=time numbers. The skipper knows the rate of fuel consumption at that engine speed. One can diagnose engine malfunction, hull disturbances, cargo maldistribution, etc with that information.

                Fuel usage as "learned" by repeated input into the digital world helps with average consumption statistics and range calculations. That is average and calculated data, not a real-time number.

                So, what do you want? How much ($$) do you want it? Around here (Puget Sound) FloScan is the go to outfit for bullet-proof fuel flow hardware. Check out their website. The data driven units have previously been discussed.

                Happy boating.

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                  #9
                  The Interactio system appears to be real time fuel flow sent to an app in the iphone which has a gps in it that will calculate speed / time. I don't know what other information one would need. Time till empty, MPG, GPH. ETA, Total gallons used, that's all I need.
                  Brett & Elise, Sammy + Wilson
                  New Addition - 2002 Trophy 2002WA FF Optimax 135
                  GO HAWKS!

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                    #10
                    Against the advice I received on BOC I bought a $69 diesel fuel usage gauge from eBay. It did not work but no problem as it was cheap anyway so little was lost. We left it attached attached anyway as we did not think it would do any harm & forgot about it. A few weeks later while cruising at 2400 rpm the starboard engine lost power gradually then stopped & would not restart. We tried priming which did not work which indicated no fuel was getting through the system. After some checking the fuel filters & finding no issue & some head scratching we thought of the fuel usage system which we removed. We found the impeller had swollen up. I guess due to contact with the diesel fuel which blocked the fuel flow to the engine completely. Yet another lesson was learned fortunately with no other issues as we were in calm waters.

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