Almost every system has lines that are prone to backups, and for decades system operators have had just two choices:
But capital projects cost huge amounts of money, drag you down a contracting and procurement rabbit hole, and are disruptive for residents and businesses. Scheduled preventative cleaning results in a lot of unnecessary cleaning—which wastes crew time, money, and wear and tear on equipment...and still may not prevent a backup (usually on a holiday weekend).
Now there is a third choice: RH Borden level monitoring. It's like giving your manhole a cell phone and having it call in reports about the water level every five minutes.
An RH Borden level monitor gives you:
All of data and alarms are managed by RH Borden's simple data management dashboard—no city data management resources are needed.
RH Borden installs a level monitor inside your manhole directly above the trough. Unlike other monitors, the RH Borden monitor is not attached to the manhole lid, allowing the manhole to be opened for cleaning and inspection. Every five minutes a tight, ultrasonic beam records the height of the water.
Every day the water in your pipes goes through a pattern of high and low flow. This chart shows the normal flow in a manhole.
When a blockage occurs and water levels in the manhole rise, the system goes into an alarm state. Alarms are available as text and email messages and can be triggered by a full pipe, a high level surcharge, high-high level surcharge, and an overflow.
The chart shows weeks of normal flow, the development of a blockage with full pipe alarms, the cleaning of the line, and a return to normal flow.