Water level

Yes, not knowing accurately what your water reserve is can be stressful, but my Admiral gives me even more stress if we run out.

The Topargee water meter that I fitted works a treat so far. You set it to the tank contents and it will tell you to each and every litre how much water you have left. Available from Amazon. I bought the Bluetooth version which works through an app since the gauge displays can apparently be hard to read if not mounted high up at eye level, which can make wiring problematic.

I have ditched the grey tank gauge (along with almost everything else Sargent) since I just work on the principle that it needs emptying every time I fill with water.

The Bluetooth version is actually extremely simple to fit.

In my case I have a Shurflo pump but I see no reason why it can’t be fitted to the standard in-tank Whale pump since the gauge sender is nothing to do with the tank or the actual level of the tank contents. It simply measures the cumulative flow of water through the water pipe somewhere after the pump (but before the first tap) and tells you by deduction what is left in the tank. You don’t have to drop the tank or anything like that.

Find a clear length of straight pipe at least 8” long (because the sender needs to be reading a non-turbulent water flow). In my case I had to add a dog leg of plumbing just after the pump to create a suitable accessible straight length, but even that is very easy with push fit fittings.

You need to buy two JG push fit adaptors, 1/2” BSP female to 12mm hose. Cut the plastic pipe and insert the sender. All you need for that is a knife to cut the pipe.

Plug the Bluetooth gadget into the sender.

Fit the two supplied AA batteries in the gadget.

Download the app and tell it how much your tank holds when full. I told mine that the tank was 75 litres and it ran dry at 3 litres so I just changed the capacity figure to 72 litres! Simples!

In my case I also fitted the optional 12 volt power adaptor, which just requires connecting to the + & - terminals at the pump or into any other handy 12 volt supply wires.

I’m very pleased with mine so far. As always time will tell, but I am reassured that this seems to be made in Australia, not by China!