Hydronic Manometer

Zman

I have been looking for a decent moderately priced hydronic manometer.
I would like to be able to verify flow at balancing valves and check pump delta P accurately.
This one looks like it would do the trick https://www.amazon.com/Dwyer-490A-4-HKIT-HVAC-Manometers-Micromanometers/dp/B073D8FWNN
Does anyone have experience with these?

ratio

That link goes to an air hood...

I too have been, off 'n on, looking for a hydronic manometer. As near as I can figure, the Dwyer is the standard. I've found them for ≈$2-300 for nonames, there are several in the kilobuck range, and the Dwyer is in the middle. The Dwyer has a kit that looks like it's the bees knees, but it costs a lot more than I want to pay.

I'd be willing to try a noname if someone has a good experience with one.

STEVEusaPA

I've been playing with this one, seems to work fine. No display, you have to link it via Bluetooth to your smart phone.
http://aabsmart.com/products.html
They sell them at RE Michel.
Don't know about checking pumps with it..

Zman

Can I get the Dwyer and put a simpler kit on it. I am having trouble finding hoses and probes.

Dan Foley

I have used this one for years. Accurate and easy to use.

http://www.tsi.com/hydronic-manometer-hm675/

ratio

Sure looks nice. But it's twice the price of the Dwyer kit (that I can't afford), and you have to fill out a form with 9 required fields to even download the manual from the TSI website. <sigh>

@Zman; I'm not sure, but it looks like the hoses are standard ¼" flare fittings, = refrigerant hoses. You'll need a handful of brass fittings as well, and maybe a few adapters for Pete's Plugs as well.

GW

You would need to drill in Pete’s taps?

Are there any good ultrasonic clamp on flow meters on the market?

RPK

I’ve been using the Dwyer wet/wet manometer that comes with that kit for a couple years. No complaints. I bought Pete’s adapters separately and adapted the connections on Pete’s plug adapters and manometer to 1/4 male flare fittings, and use a couple old refrigerant hoses with ball valves. The kit looks nice, but I don’t think it’s worth the extra cost.

EBEBRATT-Ed

I used to us a Bell & Gossett analog flow meter , used refrigerant type hoses and was good to 25' of head I think.. It was ok. @GW , usually you put in a balancing valve or "circuit setter" and it comes with Petes plugs installed. I like the Armstrong circuit setters.

Also I have herd ultrasonic is unreliable. I know it won't work with any bubbles in the system and won't work with glycol. I think the professional balancers use them when they have to no tapings etc.

Bob Harper

You can measure delta P with a manometer but for flow you really need a flowmeter instead of trying to calculate flow off pressures and temps. You can use something like this if the budget is no concern: https://www.gemeasurement.com/flow-measurement-control/ultrasonic-liquid/transport-pt900-portable-ultrasonic-flow-meter-liquids for about $6.2K
For a fraction of that you could mount a magnetic flowmeter inline. If you need to make it portable you could use a spool piece. Much depends on how accurate you need to be. Check out instrumart for a huge assortment of types and brands of flowmeters. I used to use this program daily: http://www.flowexpertpro.com/
Enjoy

Zman

I purchased and returned a fairly expensive ultrasonic meter about a year ago. I read the entire manual then checked it on various pipe sizes with a water meter. The closest it was to accurate was 20% off.

Zman

I think the Dwyer with separate hoses and probes is going to be the trick. I wish someone sold an affordable set with all the different size probes

GW

RPK so can you tap into the piping; drill the petes in?

Zman

I think he is referring to using the tapped ports on circulators and using Pete's there.
Pete's ports on a straight pipe would not do any good because you need an engineered restriction in the pipe like a balancing valve to know what the pressure drop means in terms of flow.

GW

makes sense, so for us residential guys, no good tools out there?

EBEBRATT-Ed

You can use a flow meter to measure the delta P on a circulator but it's no different than installing 2 pressure gages, subtracting the readings and converting to ft of head. The flow meter or manometer just reduces the chance for error because your using 1 instrument and it eliminates the math.

If you need to check flow as @Zman mentioned you need a balancing valve or circuit setter "a known restriction" to plot the readings against to give you the flow reading

GW

Yes great, Kinda would be nice to have a tool that you could strap on and take a reading.

mikeg2015

Could use a single gauge with 2 ball valves plus a 3rd to depressurization it and a couple Ts. See that on heat exchangers a lot to check pressure drop. But yes you need to do the math.

Zman

mikeg2015 said:

Could use a single gauge with 2 ball valves plus a 3rd to depressurization it and a couple Ts. See that on heat exchangers a lot to check pressure drop. But yes you need to do the math.

That is very common way to do commercial pumps.
With the balancing valves, you are usually reading inches WC. Kind of need a meter...

Zman

GW said:

Yes great, Kinda would be nice to have a tool that you could strap on and take a reading.

I agree. I just don't think the technology is there. If you get a chance to demo one, clamp it on a pipe with a water meter and see how accurate it is. I would love to find one that works.

ratio

That's strange. ISTR hearing that the ultrasonic flowmeters were pretty good, and the chinese knockoffs were not much worse than the expensive models.