DigiFlow 8000T Flow Rate Meter Review

[Martinm210]

I found one of these on ebay for $35, and since it came with threaded 3/8" NPT, I was happy to know that I could put 5/8" barbs on it.

There were not much for specs on it other than is said .4-2.0 GPM with 3.5GPM max and the 3/8" NPT ports.

When after fitting it with some nylon 5/8" x3/8" NPT barbs, this is what it looked like:
Front

Back:

What you get (Minus the barbs)

The display in operation. The little line on top sort of counts segments as the turbin spins. While GPM reads to the .01GPM it actually jumps about .1 GPM between steps, so it's really only resolved to about .1GPM in reality.

The turbine (Sorry for the poor picture, it's about a 3/8" Diameter turbine):

Internals: (Could easily be taken apart and the LCD screen, battery pack, and speaker could be easily relocated)


Test Results (It had around 8-15% error). It's good enough for general info, but not for pressure drop testing or something that needs more than that amount of accuracy.


Pressure Drop Guestimate:
I can usually get a pretty good guess at how restrictive something is, by blowing through it. I'm still waiting for my digital manometer to get here, so in the mean time...my guestimate is a "Fairly free flowing" rating. Seems to be less restrictive than my MCW-60 sitting here on the bench, and probably more restrictive than an MCW-30. So...restriction isn't too bad and probably better than most flow rate meters.

Anyhow, I don't know that I would run one in my system all the time, but it's usefull to get an approximate reading and might make a fun project to tear apart and put into a custom fabricated case.:thumb:

Update 12-15-07 Pressure Drop Test Complete

I did a whole bunch of pressure drop testing today, this being one of many. Turns out this flow meter is actually LESS restrictive than an MCW-30. I also went ahead and captured flow rates from the King Instruments Flow meter as a means to completely retest flow rates again from scratch. What I found was nearly identical, instead of my previous average of 11% high, I got 13% high...that's some good consistency..

On with the pressure drop results: I included my MCW-30 curve for a relative, which happens to be the most free flowing block to date. So, this little flow meter, while having a tendency to read fairly high, doesn't have much of a hit on your flow rate...so that's good.