papamike

papamike

Well Known Member
Hi y'all,
Getting ready to order wings for my RV7A. Wondering if there's a major difference between floats and capacitive for fuel quantity? Any experience good or bad for either one? I'm leaning toward capacitive at the moment.

Thanks
 
I have the capacitance probes. I don't see how anything could ever go wrong with them, but there have been others that have had problems.

One thing to consider: Capacitance probes require converters. I bought the Princeton converters for ~$130 each side (read two). The Dynon converters are much cheaper, but they were not out when I needed the converters.

They are a piece of cake to set up and highly accurate with my AFS3500 EFIS.

this is one of those hot button topics. You will get a lot of responses both pro and con.
 
Pete, I have capacitance senders in my 6A with an EI FL-2C fuel gauge. My 6A is circa prior to the explosion of engine monitors etc.

I continue to be impressed with their accuracy. I routinely see how much fuel I need to fill up each tank via the fuel gauge, and find that it is spot on with what shows at the pump. Absolutely no squawks in going on 4 years of flying.

I am in the highly recommend camp.

Regards
 
Which ever way you go, I'd plan on installing a fuel flow gauge tied to a GPS. It's instant information in regards to fuel used, fuel left, and fuel to destination. I hardly look at the fuel gauges anymore. They are float, and not as accuract as a working capacitive unit. But with the fuel flow monitor, I wouldn't go to the trouble of capacitive senders.

L.Adamson -- RV6A
 
papamike said:
Hi y'all,
Getting ready to order wings for my RV7A. Wondering if there's a major difference between floats and capacitive for fuel quantity? Any experience good or bad for either one? I'm leaning toward capacitive at the moment.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Having a general mistrust of fuel gauges in general, I decided (like many others) to go simple and inexpensive wit them (floats) and use Fuel Flow and the EFIS totalizer to track my fuel. I've had zero problems with the float gauges in over 1,000 hours. I use them primarily to tell me which tank has more than the other -once they have come down off the peg (that takes about 4 gallons).

I came to RV's out of a Grumman Yankee which had sight gauges, and they weren't always the most truthful things around - so I learned to depend on time to track my gas. Old habits are hard to break...

Paul
 
I have floats with a Dynon D120. After calibration the gauges read right on the money. No reason to spend the money on capacitance. Don
 
Type of fuel is important

Hello

The type of fuel where you will do the calibration is important.

With AVGAS 100 it works perfectly and very accurate, with AUTOFUEL 98 (MOGAS in EUROPE) which can contain alcohol it is much more critical and give changing values.

When you have calibrated it with AVGAS and you put in MOGAS, it will read wrong by a certain amount.

A friend of mine changed after flying a year to the float one's, they read always fine, regardless which fuel you have on board.

Dominik
 
Wow, I'm somewhat surprised by the responses, and a little embarrassed that I didn't look around elsewhere on this site before I asked. I think I'm going with floats.
 
papamike said:
Wow, I'm somewhat surprised by the responses, and a little embarrassed that I didn't look around elsewhere on this site before I asked. I think I'm going with floats.
Click to expand...

Sometimes...........if people didn't ask, we wouldn't have anything to talk about! :)
 
L.Adamson said:
Sometimes...........if people didn't ask, we wouldn't have anything to talk about! :)
Click to expand...

Amen.. I'm not a fan of "use the search, idiot" responses. Bring it up for discussion...

I'm getting QB wings, so I guess I'm getting floats. Paul's commentary is pretty similar to my practice. I seem to fly the wrist watch first and cross check that with fuel flow and gauges. But (if I were building SB wings) I'd probably make a different decision simply for accuracy.

Good luck.
 
As pilots, we are trained to never rely on the accuracy of fuel gauges. If one were to take that concept to its extreme, almost ANY type fuel gauge system will do. As RV builders we face many choices and oftentimes the choices we make are based upon what we want rather than what we need.

The manner in which data is presented is important to some of us. I prefer the capacitive system because its single display not only uses less panel space, but is more pleasing to my eye. The capacitive system displays the fuel level in either tank in single gallons opposed to the float type alternative with its needle rotating 'round a gauge. Take a look at the economically priced Van's fuel gauges. With the arrow on the right tank photoshopped to point where it is, do you know exactly how much fuel is reported?

2crwphy.jpg


If your choice is driven by cost or if you plan to use various types fuel, then by all means go with the cheaper float system. If you prefer more accuracy or dare I say....sex appeal, then go with the capacitive system. The choice is yours.
 
My floats are hooked into my Dynon unit. They are accurate to 1/10 gallon and read exactly the same as my totalizer. Both tanks are displayed at all times. When I fill my airplane I can tell the line guy within 1/10 gal even if it was a 1hr flight or a 4 hr flight. Most accurate fuel gauges I've ever had. Don
 
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