Irrigation Meters and Turbine Meters (often Woltman Meters) are similar in appearance. They both belong to bulk water meters. What are their differences? How can we distinguish them? Where are they used? Find the answer in the following article.
What is an Irrigation Meter?
Irrigation Meter: Specifically designed for agricultural irrigation systems, with an unobstructed flow path within the pipe. It’s mainly used for high flow rates and water environments containing impurities. It ensures effective water measurement even with poor water quality.
Irrigation Meter features: High flow rate, low water quality requirements, and low maintenance requirements.
What is a Turbine Meter?
Turbine Meter (also known as Woltman Meter or Axial Turbine Meter): A water meter that measures water volume by using water flow to impact and rotate an impeller. The impeller’s axis of rotation is parallel to the direction of water flow. It can be considered an enlarged version of a common water meter and used for municipal water supply, industrial process water, fire protection systems, and agricultural irrigation.
Turbine Water Meter features: High flow rate, water quality requirements, and measurement accuracy.
What is an Irrigation Water Meter Used For?
Irrigation water meters are used to irrigate farmland, lawn, garden, or a swimming pool.
What is a Turbine Meter Used For?
*(The source material does not provide specific uses here beyond what was mentioned in its definition above, i.e., “Used for municipal water supply, industrial process water, fire protection systems, and agricultural irrigation.”)*
What is the Material of the Irrigation Meter?
Cast iron and ductile iron are the main materials for bulk water meters.
Cast iron is easy to process and is the best material choice for large water meters.
Main Differences
Different Design Purposes:
* The design purpose of the Water Meter for Irrigation is to measure water consumption in environments with many impurities and poor water quality, ensuring it does not clog during use.
* The design purpose of the Turbine Meter (or Woltman Meter) is for accurate measurement of high-flow water usage.
Different Structures:
The Irrigation Water Meter has an unobstructed internal structure. The impeller is located at the top of the pipe, occupying only about 20% of the pipe diameter. The impeller is parallel to the water flow direction, and the overall structure is simple.
The structure of the Turbine Meter (or Horizontal Woltman Meter) is relatively complex. The impeller is perpendicular to the water flow direction (*Translator’s note: this usually refers to the blades’ orientation relative to the flow, while the axis is parallel as stated earlier for an Axial Turbine/Horizontal Woltman*) and occupies the entire pipe.
Different Measurement Accuracy:
The accuracy of the Water Meter for Irrigation is not high because, due to its structural design, the impeller can only measure the water flow at the top of the pipe. The flow velocity is different at different positions within the pipe.
The accuracy of the Turbine Meter (or Woltman Meter) is very high. The impeller occupies the entire pipe and can uniformly measure the water flow throughout the entire pipe.
Different Pressure Loss:
The pressure loss of the Irrigation Water Meter is very small. The minimum requirement for pressure loss of irrigation meters in the international standard ISO 16399 is 63 kPa (0.063 MPa). BMAG’s irrigation meters have even lower pressure loss, reaching 40 kPa.
The Turbine Meter’s (or Woltman Meter’s) impeller has a larger contact area with the water flow, so pressure loss is inevitably greater, but it can still meet international standards, achieving less than 63 kPa.
Remote Data Transmission:
Both Irrigation and Agriculture Meters and Turbine Water Meters (or Woltman Meters) can be equipped with pulse wires for remote data transmission, but customers for Irrigation Water Meters rarely choose to add the pulse function.
Different Prices:
Irrigation Meter prices are lower because they do not require high measurement accuracy, so their structure is simple, and production costs are low.
Turbine Water Meters’ prices are higher. Their measurement accuracy is higher, dustproof and waterproof ratings are higher, and production requirements are more stringent, leading to higher prices than Irrigation Meters.
What are the Advantages of an Irrigation Meter?
Wide measuring rate: The Water Meter for Irrigation has a wide measuring rate that enables it to serve in broader applications and in extreme situations.
Stability: It is unaffected by operational vibrations.
Applicability: Can effectively measure water consumption even in wastewater environments.
Durability: The Irrigation Meter’s proven bearings and materials are designed for a long service life.
What are the Advantages of a Turbine Water Meter?
Wide measuring rate: The Turbine Water Meter (or Axial Turbine Meter) has a wide measuring rate that enables it to serve in broader applications and in extreme situations.
Accuracy: Measurement accuracy can reach R200.
Class: Class B.
Grade: IP68.
