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What is wrong with reed switch fuel senders?

dforgerson

I'm New Here
I have just started an RV-10 build, and it is time to order my wing kit. One of the options is for the fuel sender. I did a brief search of the Forums and I see people talking about Van's fuel senders, CiES fuel senders, and Princeton Probes capacitive fuel senders, but nothing about reed switch fuel senders. They are available on Amazon for what seems like a very reasonable price, and it seems like they are simple and would be reliable. So, what is the problem with reed switch fuel sensors? Any other suggestions about what fuel sensor to use?
 
The Vans senders - if they feed their data into an EFIS - are not only cheap but also accurate. Remember that there’s no excess room at the top or bottom - that’s the wing skin. So you’d need a physical layout that let’s the float go full top to bottom, but still can get the wires back out. Can probably be done but, as I said, the Vans floats work well.
 
Reed switch fuel senders

Reed switch fuel senders do work very well. One difference is that they don't give a linear reading as the tank goes from fuel to empty -- they output discrete values based on fuel levels - generally a different resistance for every 10 mm of fuel level. Not a big issue in most applications.

Having said that, the deal breaker is that all of the ones I have ever seen mount to the TOP of the tank and extend vertically to the bottom. This just won't work with a 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 14 tank. Would work in the 12 tank.
 
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