iVAC Dust Collection Fill Level Meter opinions? Alternatives?

[Von]

After doing some shop maintenance yesterday, for guessable reasons, I'm looking for a fill level meter for my 2-stage dust collector. The iVAC meter has caught my eye with a reasonable price point ($70). Anyone have any experience with it? Or have one to suggest I should look at instead? E.g. is the Oneida version worth twice the price?

In case it matters, this is for an Oneida Super Dust Deputy.

TIA

[drzaius]

I have the Oneida sensor and it is utter crap. Many false positive signals and it frequently wouldn't light up when full. It's disconnected now and I'm working on an alternate vibrating rod sensor.

[Beechwood Chip]

I had the iVac sensor on my old pre-Gyro Frankenstein dust collector, and it worked well enough.  I was using black contractor bags inside a metal trash can.  The sensor has two green LEDs, two yellow, and a red.  In a perfect world it would show no lights when empty and all lights when full.  In my case it showed two green when empty, and I learned to empty it when it showed two green and two yellow.  At that price, I'd buy it again. 

[gee-dub]

Personal preference.  I have tried indicators in the past.  Now I just think about it like the paperwork at the end of a job . . . you're not done till the paperwork is complete, right?  At the end of a project or long session of milling I empty the bin.  Every now and then I fail and get the result we all dread but mostly this expected step of the workflow works.

[Beechwood Chip]

On 4/22/2025 at 2:19 PM, gee-dub said:

Personal preference.  I have tried indicators in the past.  Now I just think about it like the paperwork at the end of a job . . . you're not done till the paperwork is complete, right?  At the end of a project or long session of milling I empty the bin.  Every now and then I fail and get the result we all dread but mostly this expected step of the workflow works.

That makes sense, but I'm a hobbyist, and I generally do a little work one day, and later do a little work on something else, and so on.  So there's no real good end-point to check the dust collector.  And there are other people who use my shop.  So, for me an indicator makes sense.  "When leaving the shop, check the indicator" is much more convenient than, "when leaving the shop, dis-assemble the Frankenstein dust collector and check the bin."

As you say, personal preference.

[pkinneb]

I have the old Oneida mechanical sensor that spins and it works great once it senses the bin is full it sends a signal to a flashing light inn the shop. Not sure if they are still available but definitely works well. The only down side is it hangs down about 5" so reduces capacity.

 

[drzaius]

14 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

I have the old Oneida mechanical sensor that spins and it works great once it senses the bin is full it sends a signal to a flashing light inn the shop. Not sure if they are still available but definitely works well. The only down side is it hangs down about 5" so reduces capacity.

 

Rotating vane sensors work very well, but they do take away from the bin capacity. I picked up a used vibrating rod sensor and have done some prelim testing and it works consistently and takes very little in the way of height. I just have a 35 gal. bin, so can't really afford to lose any.

[Von]

Thanks for the comments all. I plan to order the iVAC after I get back from some travel next week.

 

[Von]

Got my Fill Level Meter from iVac and I'm installing it and have run into the issue that the 1/2" hole they have me drill for the sensor cable seems too small to fit the plug through on the end of the sensor cable. I've reached out to their support but thought I'd check here as well - did anyone else run into this? Am I confused or are their directions wrong and I need a larger hole. TIA.

[Beechwood Chip]

It's been many years and I've sold my old DC, so I can't check.  Sorry.

Found it!  I vaguely remembered that the cord came apart in a stealthy manner, and I found this in the online manual.

[Von]

On 5/8/2025 at 1:57 PM, Von said:

Got my Fill Level Meter from iVac and I'm installing it and have run into the issue that the 1/2" hole they have me drill for the sensor cable seems too small to fit the plug through on the end of the sensor cable. I've reached out to their support but thought I'd check here as well - did anyone else run into this? Am I confused or are their directions wrong and I need a larger hole. TIA.

Heard back from iVAC support and I need a 13/16" hole. They apparently have two different sizes of connectors now and their directions have not caught up. This causes me to remember why I don't read installation directions :-/