My ongoing fuel sender saga... good news!! <replacing fuel sender>

[waterboy]

Yeah, I kinda remember going through the same thing. Mary is the only one that takes orders and I think works half days. I think these guys are a very small outfit, not a huge manufacturing plant by any means..

 

[MOA_Chaser]

We can joke about it, but I don't ever remember dealing with a company that had such genuine concern for getting the absolute correct product to you the first time.

 

[Scottintexas]

I just read the product link on page one and they state,
http://www.centroidproducts.com/pic-cal-4-1-2013.pdf

6. HELP We provide free tech support, but by email or fax only (we're a very small company). You'll be answered the same working day.

 

[Bruce]

@Julian, how about organizing a group buy when you get through. I am certainly in for one and it would cut down on the work for the manufacturer.

 

[Julian]

Not sure Mary sounds like the right person to discuss that with...but I will ask IF I ever get through. The challenge with all of you with 2007-2009 boats is you don't have a convenient gas tank access door like the 2003-6 models have.....so you'll have to unscrew the whole floor!

 

[waterboy]

LOL, unfortunately I got too damn good at unscrewing the floor trying to calibrate my sender

 

[Andy S]

I believe the connector Mary is taking about is the opposite side to one that comes with the fuel sender. The connector that comes with the fuel sender is a direct plug and play to the factory connector.

This weekend I will be running at least a tank of fuel through my boat so it will be a perfect test of the functionality.

Like @waterboy when I plugged in my new fuel sender the gauge read appropriately which was 3/4's and then I topped off the tank and the fuel gauge read full.

 

[Bruce]

Not sure Mary sounds like the right person to discuss that with...but I will ask IF I ever get through. The challenge with all of you with 2007-2009 boats is you don't have a convenient gas tank access door like the 2003-6 models have.....so you'll have to unscrew the whole floor!

But we do not have to cut the floor out to replace the tank and we can install sound deadening!

 

[MOA_Chaser]

Sending an email would probably be the best way to get a group buy... That way it can easily get routed to the right person. If it happens, in the words of Maxwell Smart, Agent 86... " Missed it by THIS much!"

 

[Julian]

Mary seriously needs a new phone!!!! That said, she had no interest in a group buy, and even mentioned that this was a proprietary Mastercraft part and needed to see if there were any issues selling to non-mc owners....then she took my order. LOL

I had a meeting to get to....so I didn't have time to get into "who is your boss...and might I get his number to discuss a group order"

Mine should be on its way in 2 weeks!

 

[Andy S]

Mary seriously needs a new phone!!!! That said, she had no interest in a group buy, and even mentioned that this was a proprietary Mastercraft part and needed to see if there were any issues selling to non-mc owners....then she took my order. LOL

I had a meeting to get to....so I didn't have time to get into "who is your boss...and might I get his number to discuss a group order"

Mine should be on its way in 2 weeks!

Since it seems Centriod is such a small shop, I bet Mary's boss is her son, but I don't know that for sure.

 

[MOA_Chaser]

It got here faster than I thought it would. It was there when I got home from work yesterday. Quick and easy install. It doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate this weekend, but I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works.

 

[Andy S]

On Saturday 5/16, we started with a full tank (50 gallons) and then ran 70 miles before topping off. Prior to refueling the fuel gauge was showed we burned 7/16 of a tank. Since I have a 50 gallon tank, each 1/16th of a tank is 3.125 gallons, so burning 7/16th of a tank meant I should have put back 21.875 gallons, surprisingly we put back 22.4 gallons, the new fuel sender was pretty darn accurate.

After refueling on Saturday we ran another 70 miles back to Charleston. I have not refueled yet, should do that today or tomorrow and will again check the accuracy of the new fuel sender and post my results here.

Thanks to @waterboy for the info on the replacement fuel sender, so far I'm very impressed with the performance.

 

[waterboy]

@andy07sx230ho Thanks for the post. I finally got our boat out on Saturday. Only burned about 3/8 of a tank and didn;t refill. I want to get below 1/2 tank. While you had an accurate refill, you may not have recalibrated for full tank... see below.

On the new sender, it has to get below 1/2 tank for the auto recalibration function to kick in and reset. Here is a quote from Joel at Centroid on how the new sender recalibrates: "The new programmable senders have a feature called Full Detection which arms itself when the fuel reading is below 1/2 at powerup and then recalibrates the Full when the FD is armed and the sender powers up with fuel on its FD "stinger" in the top couple inches of the sender. A weakness I've found with this for boats is that boat owners often only fill part way, such that the FD doesnt get a chance to do its thing."

While filling part way may or may not be an issue, it seems that it also has to get below half tank to "reset". So far so good though.

 

[waterboy]

Also, just so everyone has it, I am posting my full email string I had with Joel at Centroid. It has part numbers, etc. This is a bit of a report from earlier but there is still confustion over part numbers, who to contact, etc.


Joel at Centroid (rr) <joel7@cfl.rr.com>
Jan 5

to me

David:

Call Mary at 386-423-3574 between 8a-2p EST Mon/THU with the 395088 part number. Tell her its for gasoline you'd like to buy a programmable version of that sender so you'll have Full Detection.

Joel

----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: Joel at Centroid (rr)
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Tech Support
Joel,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

To your question above, on my tank approaching empty, you are correct in that I am probably at 2-3 inches in the tank. I knew the capacitance of the E (x) fuels varied but not by that much so your explanation makes great sense especially since I have been expanding my boating range in the past few years and have "contaminated" my tank with various E(x) fuels.

With most of my boating at my local lake, I can easily let my tank fall below half before I refuel. Do you have a new sender that I can purchase? Can you send me proper information for my tank? What I have is essentially unusable in it's current state.

Thanks for your help,

David


On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 4:00 PM, Joel at Centroid (rr) <joel7@cfl.rr.com> wrote:

David:

When you recalibrate, you're getting an E reading already with the sender out of the tank to simulate empty. That implies to me that when you are getting the 5/8 reading, there must be at least 2-3 inches of fuel left on the 12 inch sender. Is that what you mean by the fuel level approaching empty?____________

Gasoline without ethanol (E0) has only half the capacitance of gasoline with 10% ethanol (E10), and the percent ethanol can be anywhere from 0 to 10%. So if you calibrated for Full with E0, than E10 would read 200% (ie pegged) at 100%, 100% at 50%, 20% at 10%, and 0% at 0%. Conversely, if you calibrated for E10, then E0 would read 50% at 100%, 25% at 50%, 5% at 10%, and 0% at 0%. The new programmable senders have a feature called Full Detection which arms itself when the fuel reading is below 1/2 at powerup and then recalibrates the Full when the FD is armed and the sender powers up with fuel on its FD "stinger" in the top couple inches of the sender. A weakness I've found with this for boats is that boat owners often only fill part way, such that the FD doesnt get a chance to do its thing.

I think the reason you've done well in the past is that I've found the percent ethanol in a given area is surprisingly dependable. For example, the percent ethanol every time I've measured it in our Daytona Beach, FL area has been close to 5%. But now that you switch between E<"your area"> and E0, there isnt a way to get a manual cal that will work for both of those.

Joel
----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: help@centroidproducts.com
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 8:47 AM
Subject: Tech Support

Good morning. I need tech support and/or information on ordering a new sender.

I have a 2007 Yamaha boat with a Centroid sender, model number 395088, 3 wire sender with a 5 hole mount. Up until recently, this has been by far, the best sender I have ever had on a boat.

It currently will read FULL correctly but will only drop to about 5/8 tank when the tank is actually approaching EMPTY. I have done multiple "calibrations" per your procedure online. Removing the probe to verify EMPTY (no adjustments necessary) and only very slight adjustments needed for proper FULL reading when reinstalled into a full tank.

The problem seemed to appear when switching (and mixing) ethanol and non-ethanol fuel. The problem will not clear up with repeated use of one fuel or another. For most of the life of the boat, I have used ethanol fuel and have never had any issues with this.

Can you help with the current sender? I am also very interested in the new "auto-calibrating" version you now have and would like to consider an upgrade. Please provide information on the upgrade.

On the current sender, the tube length is 11.5" (for the tube) with a 12" total length from the "base plate" to the end of the tube.

Thanks for your help and please let me know if you need further information.

David

 

[Andy S]

@andy07sx230ho Thanks for the post. I finally got our boat out on Saturday. Only burned about 3/8 of a tank and didn;t refill. I want to get below 1/2 tank. While you had an accurate refill, you may not have recalibrated for full tank... see below.

On the new sender, it has to get below 1/2 tank for the auto recalibration function to kick in and reset. Here is a quote from Joel at Centroid on how the new sender recalibrates: "The new programmable senders have a feature called Full Detection which arms itself when the fuel reading is below 1/2 at powerup and then recalibrates the Full when the FD is armed and the sender powers up with fuel on its FD "stinger" in the top couple inches of the sender. A weakness I've found with this for boats is that boat owners often only fill part way, such that the FD doesnt get a chance to do its thing."

While filling part way may or may not be an issue, it seems that it also has to get below half tank to "reset". So far so good though.

I did a partial calibration with mine before fully installing, something I didn't mention in my previous post. With the new fuel sender electrically connected but only partially in the tank, about 1" of the probe was in the gasoline, I turned on the key to get the low fuel setting, then with the key still on I slowly installed the sender, and once fully installed it read what was in the tank (about 3/4). To get another empty calibration, I won't refuel until I am closer to a 1/4 tank and then post my results.

 

[MOA_Chaser]

We took out the boat yesterday and burned about a half tank. Looks like it's working great!

During the install, I noticed that there were little black rubber washers (mostly disintegrated) on the bolts for the old sender. I saw that someone posted that these bolt holes don't open into the fuel tank, so I discarded the rubber. Shouldn't be any issue with that, right?

 

[Andy S]

We took out the boat yesterday and burned about a half tank. Looks like it's working great!

During the install, I noticed that there were little black rubber washers (mostly disintegrated) on the bolts for the old sender. I saw that someone posted that these bolt holes don't open into the fuel tank, so I discarded the rubber. Shouldn't be any issue with that, right?

On previous attempts to calibrate my old fuel sender I had pulled it out of the tank and saw the same issues with the rubber washer. I too discarded mine and have never had any issues with the old unit or new unit.

 

[Andy S]

Verification number 2 of the new fuel senders accuracy. The fuel gauge read 1/4 of a 50 gallon tank left or I need to put 37.5 gallons back in to fill it up. When I refilled the tank I put in 38.8 gallons which to me is pretty darn accurate. Now I finally have confidence in my fuel gauge.

 

[Scottintexas]

@andy07sx230ho not to split hairs but aren't our tanks actually 52 gallons? the manual says 50 but I thought somebody opened theirs up to find 52 stamped on it,

if it is 3/4 tank would require 39 gallons which would be even closer,

I'm going to order one tomorrow!