[Pumptesting] New level sensor installed in fire cistern Re: Test done today

[Tara Halwes]

Awesome Mike! Aim for Wednesday unless you hear otherwise from Courtney.
What time of day you’re available will determine if you get Courtney vs me
to walk you through it, but it’s now substantially less weird than it would
have been 24 hours ago because …

We successfully installed and programmed the new level sensor today!
Mostly Daver, but also Tara and Helené!

We added a new “call us” warning at 5’ before the “call fire dept” warning
at 4’.

We confirmed these worked (signaled the FACP correctly) and that the new
sensor correctly reported its depth as a function of pressure.

The new alarm level shouldn’t affect your testing as we’re not regularly
going to fake out the tank level dropping to test alarm comms, but it is
part of the set of cistern level thresholds you’re logging data in context
of when you check the gray box readout and write it down on paper (aka
“suction reservoir”).

*Fire cistern level thresholds*
As programmed by Dave Ritchie for new level sensor installed Oct 18, 2025:
- *4ft - VERY LOW ALARM *- summons FD
- *5ft - LOW WARNING *- calls us (Adam/Tara/Ross/DaveS) so we can start
investigating why it’s this low and also warn the Water team something
weird is happening
- *6.8ft - START FILLLING *- this level or lower signals the solenoid to
refill the cistern until it hits 7ft - you should be able to hear it
running if the level is 6.8ft or lower
- *7ft - STOP FILLING* - if filling, tells solenoid to stop filling. You
should not hear it filling above 7ft.
- *8ft - HIGH WARNING *- calls us. Presumably sensor error or very heavy
rain.

~Tara
508-361-9605

On Sat, Oct 18, 2025 at 14:18 Mike Gaisford <mgaisford at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'd be happy to do the tests on the next scheduled date. Is there training
> needed to work the modified checklist? Im in AZ now but will be available
> on Wednesday onward to meet to review if needed.
>
> On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 11:07 AM Tara Halwes <tarahalwes at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> FYI the new level sensor has arrived and is in my house, so hopefully I
>> can get Daver to install it today or tomorrow and next week we can resume
>> including that set of checks in our testing.
>>
>> Generator repair is still To Be Scheduled, presumably waiting on a part
>> ordered by Weld, who is our generator subcontractor through SWSS.
>>
>> Our control panel display is still stuck on “updating” but we will
>> continue to do pump testing regardless, referring to the analog pressure
>> gauges for our measurements.
>>
>> Thank you Courtney for all the work you’ve done to make this easier for
>> fellow volunteers to figure out, and consequently making me look smart and
>> together in front of the fire chief. 😋
>>
>> Tara
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 08:27 Courtney Lewis <courtney.d.lewis at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I skipped the lines with the suction pump reservoir but everything else
>>> is done.
>>>
>>> Sent from my phone with the “help” of my two young ones
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Pumptesting mailing list
>>> Pumptesting at lists.sawyerhill.org
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>>>
>>
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