Water irrigation is necessary for agriculture,turf,gardening,etc,and water resource is becoming more expensive. Thus, it is necessary to install flow measurement device to know how much water rate you have used. In the past, mechanical type water flow meters are widely used for irrigation,but mechanical flow meters have many inherent defects.As a result,more and more digital water flow meters are used for irrigation application.
Digital irrigation flow meters mainly have transit-time ultrasonic flow meters and magnetic flow meters now which have no moving parts. Of course, it doesn't means only the 2 type available in the market,in fact, there are also other type digital water flow meters available,but ultrasonic and magnetic meters almost most of markets with their economic price and good performance.
Also because of human resource, intelligent automatically controlling is also listed as a priority consideration. Digital water flow meter,e.g. ultrasonic type, can provide versatile outputs for remote signal controller,and have 4-20mA,OCT pulse,relay switch, batch controller,etc. By different signal output, users can reach different intelligent controlling as requirement.
Digital water flow meters have been widely used for agriculture and turf, and typical application including the following:
- Agriculture fertigation
- Landscaping
- Golf Watering
- Pivot irrigation
- Irrigation sprinkler
The following are 8 kinds of main solutions listed for reference:
1.Solar Powered Clamp On Ultrasonic Flow Meter
Clamp on ultrasonic flow meter dosen't require to cut pipe and easy to install&operate. But clamp on flowmeter may cost power much sharply than inline&insertion type. So built-in battery is not good solution for several days flow measurement. But if you just require a day measurement,our portable flow meter with battery is a good choice.Other a storage cell is required.If just want the flowmeter to work for several days,e.g. a week, a storage cell should be enough. But if want to work for more days or several months,solar power solution should be a better choice.
2.Battery Power Inline Ultrasonic Water Meter
With cutting-edge technology,we have developed our transit-time ultrasonic water flow meter with very low power consumption.Thus this patented technology makes our inline ultrasonic flow meters powered by built-in 3.6V Li-battery. Such battery can support ultrasonic water meter to work for 4-6 years,even longer,so the solution doesn't require external storage cell or solar panel. Battery powered ultrasonic water meters have been widely used in irrigation projects.
3.Battery Powered Ultra-light Ultrasonic Water Meter
In order to reduce the weight of irrigation flow meter, we specially designed ultra-light insertion ultrasonic water flow meters for irrigation. It has a compact body and very light weight.It is also powered by built-in 3.6V battery and can work for 4-6 years. The ultrasonic water meter has four pipe sizes released:DN80,DN100,DN125 and DN150mm. Comparing with inline ultrasonic water meter, its price is much cheaper. Thus,it is an ideal type for your irrigation flow measurement.
4.Ultrasonic Portable Water Flow Meter
Portable water flow meters are also used for irrigation flow measurement,especially when the irrigation process is for short-term and often moved for different position. Portable digital water flow meter is developed on the basis of clamp on transit-time ultrasonic flow meter. It has built-in recharging battery and can work 12-20 hours after fully recharging. Meanwhile, clamp on flow transducers don't need to cut pipe. The whole weight of portable flow meter is not big and easy to carry for mobile flow check and survey.
5.Battery Power Inline Magnetic Flow Meter
As the main competitor of ultrasonic water meter,battery power magnetic flow meters are also often selected as digital irrigation flow meters.But comparing with battery powered ultrasonic water meter, its price is much higher.Meanwhile, because of different structure, the weight of mag-flow is bigger than ultrasonic type. This will improve shipping fee,especially for international business. Thus, out of comprehensive consideration, it is firstly to recommend ultrasonic water meters.
We can make the two types flow meters and provide them as your requirement. But we recommend ultrasonic type as first choice.
6.Plastic Inline Turbine Flow Meter
This solution has moving parts and not recommended.But there are still many suppliers to provide such solution. End users are not familiar with flow technologies,but as distributors or manufacturers, the solution shouldn't be recommended unless requirement.
Anyway, in order for such requirement,we also provide plastic type turbine flow meters. Plastic body can reduce the weight. The turbine flowmeter uses impeller rotation to 'sense" water flow,thus its working doesn't require external power.But if require signal output, its converter will require,but in regard that it is just signal, a battery power should be enough. If battery power costs up, user can replace a new one.
7.Paddle wheel Irrigation Flow Sensor with Pulse Output
Our paddle wheel flow sensor is not heavy and has pulse output. Meanwhile, its price is not higher. Thus, paddle flow meter sensor is often selected as irrigation flow sensor,especially for bigger pipe size. We also have developed related digital flow controller to make the flow sensor as digital irrigation flow meter.
8.Inline Hall Effect Flow Sensor
Many irrigation projects are limited by budget target and have no enough budget to select irrigation flow meters above. Thus, we have released inline hall effect flow sensor with pulse output. Comparing with flow devices above, its main advantage is cheap. In order to meet requirement for bigger pipe size, we have made DN80mm inline hall flow sensor which is a bigger size in such flow sensors.
Of course, comparing with the flow meters above, its accuracy is not so high like them,but the accuracy should be enough for common irrigation application.
Landscaping and Turf Irrigation Flow Meter Sensor
Unlike agriculture irrigation, turf and landscaping irrigation may use smaller size pipe.e.g. below DN40mm. For such application,we can provide small size digital water flow meter or water flow sensor,which mainly includes
- Hall effect flow sensors
- Plastic variable area flow meter
- Turbine flow sensors
- Ultrasonic flow sensor
- Other customizing flow devices
In a word, ultrasonic flow meter and magnetic flow meter should be the main irrigation flow meters at present. When you need to purchase flow meters for irrigation watering,it is better to select either as your first choice.
Why Select Digital Water Flow Meter for Irrigation?
Water has been one of the most precious resources in the world,and more and more countries and areas are facing serious problem of lacking water.Thus, a precise irrigation flow meter is essential to measure how much water rate you have consumed. Meanwhile, as agricultural irrigation has its unique application:irrigation flow meters may be carried for different of applications in different farm,so its weight shouldn't be too heavy.
In the past, mechanical water meters or flow meters were used for irrigation flow measurement and mainly include woltman water meters, turbine flow meters,etc. Such traditional flow meters always have moving parts and brought many disadvantages:pressure loss, shorter life,accuracy reduced after using, bigger weight,etc. Thus,it is absolute to introduce proper irrigation flow meters. So digital water flow meters are released to avoid those problem.
For digital water flow meter, you have known the answer: yes, transit-time ultrasonic flow meters and magnetic flow meters are the better solution for digital irrigation flow metering. Comparing with mechanical irrigation flow meters, they have very good advantages as below:
- Higher accuracy
- Lower velocity sensitivity
- Longer using life obviously reduces your average investigation
- Powerful function to record positive/negative/NET flow rate
- Stronger communication ability: batch controller, data logger, GPRS/GSM wireless communication, Modbus for network,etc
- Clamp on ultrasonic flow meters don't need to cut pipe and lightweight to carry for different test points. Reduce your comprehensive investigation.
- Low cost clamp on flow meter solution from ABEST only. With cutting edge technology,we have reduced the price of clamp on flowmeter to a very low point that will give you a big surprise.
Contact us today to experience our excellent Digital water flow meter with lower price.