flow meters?

[guitarded]

has anyone ever used a flow meter to get an accurate reading of the return output? if so, what flow meter did you use and where did you get it?

[indy]

I think most folks just ballpark the figures based on the info provided by the pump manufacturer. Every pump I've bought has a flow v. head height chart. Close enough for me anyway.

[guitarded]

i have a pretty good ball park figure. however, i had to close down my ball valve to tweak the noise on my overflow (yes, i already installed a standpipe). so i would like to check on the actual flow that i am getting.

[Phyl]

One of my overflows were making *terrible* noise. When I realized it was only one of them I looked at the two to see if I could figure out what was different enough to cause the noise difference. What I found was that the quiet overflow was closer to where it dropped into the sump and the other one was further away. Since the further one had a straight run at the wet/dry it was running faster than the other one. The closer (quiet) overflow hose had been curled around to get back to the inlet so it had a circle in the hose (going up into the air), and then into the inlet to the wet/dry. When I put a U into the (noisey) hose that had the straight run to the wet dry it quieted right down. Seemed that little bit of bend in the hose was enough to slow down the return enough so that it was always full of water, thereby eliminating the noise of the waterfall into the overflow. It has made us all very happy!

I had originally had a mag9 in there but the noise was really bad. Put in a mag 12 and it wasn't quite so bad but still noisey. That's when I checked the hoses. Seemed in my case that faster flow into the tank and slower flow out was what fixed my noise problem.

[guitarded]

i have a pretty straight shot to my sump. actually, after i made and installed a stockman standpipe, the gurgling and slurping noise stopped. however, in my outer outflow box, i am getting waterfall noise as the water goes over the baffle that separates the siphon tube chamber from the drain chamber. i was able to reduce the noise by cranking down on the ball valve of my return line. so therefore, i was curious as to my actual flow. (btw, i also adjusted the hole size on the top of the stockman).

right now, noise is not the problem. i just want to make sure that i still have enough flow. i know what the flow should be at the calculated head height when the ball valve is fully open.

k, that said... has anyone ever used a flow meter to get an accurate reading of the return output? if so, what flow meter did you use and where did you get it?

[indy]

Place a 5 gallon bucket at your normal head height and time how long it takes to fill. AFter that do the math and you'll have your answer without having to buy anything else.

[guitarded]

yeah, i was afraid i was going to have to do that. however, i will probably place the bucket at the end of my drain tube and time it. that way i don't have to raise the bucket so high.