How accurately is my Mechanical gas level indicator on my gas bottle going to be?
One of the common questions we receive is how accurate will the gas level indicator be on my GAS IT bottle and what amount of gas is shown on the manual display.
Well we can tell you that It will be no less accurate than the petrol or diesel gauge on your vehicle dash - but there are some design limitations with gas bottles that means the readings can't be from the top of the bottle to the bottom.
All gas systems of any make and brand that have a mechanical contents gauges, on bottles and tanks, are a non calibrated unit so it will show the gas level in a similar way a petrol or diesel gauge shows the vehicle fuel tank level on dash of your car and whilst it might not be 100% accurate actually having a indication of the gas contents is obviously better than not having it at all.
Accuracy of vehicle fuel gauges vary as you can get down to 0 miles displayed on your dash showing you have nothing left in your vehicle's fuel tanks but can still drive 30 or 40 miles before you fill up.
The Gas level shown in a GAS IT bottle is fed to the outside gauge by a float system that physically floats on top of the liquid LPG in the bottle and this level is given to the outside mechanical indicator. As this gas level can vary due to temperature of the propane ( as it expands and contracts ) and its affected by the angle of the bottle, the shape of the bottle, the amount of gas in the bottle at a given time and the actual level of the vehicle the bottle is fitted in, it is hard to offer a definitive answer to what each marking on the manual gas level gauge will indicate.
Unfortunately the reading of fluids in a vehicle it's not an exact science as fuel gauges on vehicles prove.
What we do with our own motorhome gas bottles is make a note of how much gas is put back in the bottle when it's down to a certain display position ( once the mechanical display has moved down somewhat. We do this a few times to then work out that when the tank gets down to a certain level on the display is say an average of 13 ltrs needed to refill the bottle. We need to do this a few times as the amount we pump in might vary due to filling station, the temperature of the gas, the time of day and so forth.
GAS IT has in June 2019 launched its Bluetooth Ultrasonic sensor which reads the gas level from the very top of the gas to the very bottom. The readings via the app on your smart device is as accurate as you can be and it displays the gas level in 1% increments on the app. Visit the GAS IT webshop and search bluetooth.
Below is an indication of how the German made gas level indicator fits inside our GAS IT bottles and how it works by floating on the gas level inside the bottle.
As you can see in the pictures below, the float is pivoted around the centre of the bottle but for us to read the gas level from the bottom of the bottle to the top of the bottle we would need a float that physically is longer than the width of the bottle allows, so all refillable gas bottle brands have had to compromise so when you fill the gas bottle up you will get approximately half way with liquid LPG the level indicator will show full. When you use the gas out of the bottle and the liquid level drops, when the level gets to around half, the mechanical display will start to go down until the liquid level in the bottle nearly gets tot he bottom of the bottle where it shows empty but will still have a small amount of liquid in play. This is why we suggest that you get to a certain indication / movement on your gas level indicator and then go and fill up a few times to start to learn how much gas you have used and how much gas you need to refill to that same point. If you want a more accurate reading then there is only the Bluetooth option which transmits from the bottom of the bottle to the top.
This below is the gas outlet valve with the float, highlighting the way it would work. If you check any other brands of self refillable gas bottles they will all work in the same technical way.
