Replacing the batteries in your Smart Oil Gauge is important for it’s functionality. The Smart Oil Gauge requires two 3.6V SAFT LS14500 batteries. Most wireless devices need some sort of battery to power the device. However, unlike your cellphone and portable gaming consoles, the Smart Oil Gauge doesn’t have a rechargeable internal battery. These batteries in the Smart Oil Gauge need to be replaced semi-often. But it’ll ultimately depend on how often your gauge uploads.
When to Replace
The Smart Oil Gauge has four stages for the battery life. These are “Excellent“, “Good“, “Fair” and “Poor“. You should start planning to replace them once they start reading “Fair” on the app. However, even with a reading of Fair, the gauge still can last a couple of months before they reach “Poor”. Once they reach poor, you’ll want to replace them. I would suggest ordering a replacement set around the time they read “Fair”, so you can put a replacement set in when they start reading “Poor”! We sell them on both our Smart Oil Gauge and FuelSnap websites.
However, even if they say “Poor” you’ll still have a good couple of months on them before they die completley. That’s why it’s good to have an extra set on hand! This makes the whole process of replacing them much easier and seamless. The SAFT batteries also have a ten year shelf life. So even buying an extra set to have on hand will be helpful as well and you won’t have to worry about them going bad!
Battery Compatibility
As I mentioned previously, the Smart Oil Gauge uses SAFT LS14500 3.6V batteries. We do sell these on our website, but you can also get them at a local battery store if you have one nearby. We’ve had the most success with these batteries in particular. However, other brands such as EEMB and Elexjar don’t work as well and have caused issues for our users in the past. For that reason, I would avoid those batteries all together.
It’s also very important to know that the gauge cannot use standard AA batteries from Duracell, Energizer or Rayovac. This is because these batteries are only 1.5 volts and will not be able to power the unit, but will be able to power the LED light. So when the gauge stops uploading and you try to troubleshoot this, you’ll tend to only get one flash, and the gauge won’t be able to enter any of the config modes.
How to Replace the Batteries
Replacing the batteries in the Smart Oil Gauge is easy. Think of it like replacing the batteries on a TV remote. For the standard model, all you have to do is slowly take out the battery box. Then, you’ll want to locate the three ridges and the battery warning sticker on the back. Once you’ve found those, you’re going to want to push down on the ridges and push forward. This will cause the battery box to slide open, and you’ll be able to take out the batteries in there and replace them with new ones. Then after replacing the batteries, close up the battery box and turn the gauge back on. You’ll then see an updated reading on the app! If you want to watch video instructions on how to replace the batteries, you can check it out here.
But, on the Smart Oil Gauge Duo, it’s significantly easier. All you have to do to replace the batteries on the duo is to unscrew the cap and press the little battery top. It should pop right open and you can swap out the old batteries with the new batteries. Afterwards, simply put the batteries back in, close it up and it’ll come online with a new up to date reading!
The Battery Life
While this doesn’t always happen, sometimes it can take 24-48 hours for the battery life to update on the app. This is because when you change the batteries on the gauge, you’re changing it on the gauge itself. However, the gauge hasn’t connected to our servers to upload the information of the batteries changing. It does this every 24-48 hours. So sometimes it can take 24-48 hours for the battery life to completley update on the app sometimes. The batteries on indoor units will tend to last 1-3 years on average.
Now, the battery life can get a little bit funky on outdoor tanks. This is because the outside temperature can cause the battery life to fluctuate a lot on the app. If your tank is outside, then you’ll see that there’s going to be a little bit of battery level fluctuation. Due to this, you’ll see the batteries fluctuate between “Good”, “Excellent”, “Fair” & “Poor”. Now don’t worry about them being bad. On outdoor tanks this is normal due to the temperature outside. I suggest always having a set on hand incase the gauge stops uploading. If that’s the case, they might’ve died and you’ll simply just have to replace them. This also means that the batteries on outdoor devices won’t last as long. They’ll likley last anywhere from 6 months to a year.
Modifying the Gauge
The Smart Oil Gauge is designed to be completely wireless. We do not have plans to make a wired device at this time. DO NOT modify the gauge’s battery compartment in any shape or form. Not only does this void the warranty, but it can also damage the components of the Smart Oil Gauge. If you connect a wired AC adapter to the Smart Oil Gauge’s battery and plug it in, this puts the gauge at risk of short-circuiting during a power outage or a brownout.
Additionally, modifying the gauge in anyway will make it harder to troubleshoot the device. In instances like this, if the internal components are modified, not only will it affect our troubleshooting procedures, but if the device is ever sent back to us for us to look at, we will not be able to work on it in our offices.
Conclusion
Replacing the batteries on the Smart Oil Gauge is simple to do! Replacing the batteries will only tend to take a couple of minutes to get your gauge back to normal! By following not only the instructions in this article, but on our YouTube channel, you’ll be able to replace the batteries no problem!
Plus, will the additional information I’ve given you on the batteries, not only do you know the nitty gritty details about the batteries, you’ll also be able to know what to do and what not to do when replacing the batteries!
Happy Heating!
Hunter
