Van Walt’s Logger of Choice – LevelSCOUT

March 30, 2016

A new year brings us a new, non-vented or absolute water level logger, Van Walt’s LevelSCOUT from the stable of the Seattle based manufacturer Seametrics. Seametrics was primarily known for their superb range of Flow Meters and in 2014 they purchased INW (Instrumentation North West) who had been producing vented and non-vented loggers for decades. INW’s strength was the excellence of their equipment, world-wide they are considered leaders in accuracy and resilience.

During the purchase of INW, Seametrics retained all the staff including the owner of INW, Gregg Gustaffson who now acts as a consultant for the Board.

Van Walt has been supplying vented INW sensors for some years, primarily for those situations where the highest accuracy was required (and elsewhere I have written about the benefits and disadvantages of vented vs absolute) and now we are delighted to be able to offer you a new absolute water level logger from this respected stable, that has many advantages over alternatives:

1. Up to the minute technology: Having taken the best of INW in terms of electronics and components it has upgraded, where it was deemed beneficial, elements which needed upgrading to give it all the benefits of the latest technology.
2. Accuracy: An absolute logger normally loses on accuracy because of the necessity of compensating for barometric pressure. Our new logger also requires this compensation but the total typical accuracy is now in the region of 10mm and therefore substantially better than other similar devices.
3. Price: We are well aware that you operate in an increasingly competitive market and one of the considerations before choosing this new logger was to ensure it was extremely well priced.
4. Surface Water: We have always deemed absolute loggers insufficiently accurate for use on surface water. Now we believe we can offer you a realistic choice.
5. Weight: It may seem odd that we mention that weight is important but we have listened to you when you have reported that some loggers are so light they sometimes “float” and never consistently settled to the required deployment depth.
6. Replaceable Battery: Logger batteries mostly last a very long time (approximately 4.5 years under typical usage) but customers see it as an advantage to be able to replace batteries. Now you can do this.
7. Industry Standard Protocols: The new device runs on a Modbus protocol. This is important because it can easily be connected, without the requirement of interfaces, to peripherals such as telemetry modems or indeed directly to a PC.
8. Ruggedness: Whether in the stainless steel or titanium version our new logger has a track record of robustness and ruggedness. We don’t advise you abuse it but, under test, we have found it to be a very field sturdy device.

Confidence – Technology – Choice

When choosing Van Walt’s LevelSCOUT water level logger these words, which form part of our mission statement, became some of the very reasons for adopting this brand new instrument:

Confidence: In the product, in the people behind the product – staff in the manufacturing, quality control and assurance, marketing and administration. More importantly we look at the philosophy of a business to make sure that each step is documented, ethically sound and follows our core values.

Technology: Any technology used in our products must be current and tested following good quality assurance and quality control procedures. Robustness, fit for purpose, and reliability will feature highly as does track record and provenance.

Choice: We live in an age where there is a buffet of choices. The trick is to find the smart choice but the choice of yesterday might not be that of today or tomorrow so there needs to be a continual evaluation of the choices we make. At Van Walt we believe strongly that choice, in the way we do things, the products we support, the staff we employ, is fundamental to the success of our business and the success in our interaction with our customers. A programme of continual development is in place so we can be more certain that we use the best decision criteria to make smarter choices for our customers.

Vincent van Walt

Van Walt Ltd