Ben Franklin had it right: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially when we are trying to get the most out of our process – and our working hours.

In the process of selecting a flow product, you may have decided to go with a magnetic flow meter based on your total process requirements. That’s great – but you aren’t done yet.

Three warm up questions

No – these aren’t the top 10. You’ve got one more step first. You need to ask yourself:
• You’re trying to flow… what?!?
• You want to install it where?
• You want it to do what?

So, let’s assume you asked yourself the questions above.

Now what?! There are still things to consider if you are going to get the most effective use of your flow meter. Where and how to install a magnetic flow meter will have an impact on how well it performs and its overall benefit to your process.

The three questions above, lead to a list of considerations that must be answered. The top 10 questions to ask before installing a mag meter are:

Where do you install the magnetic flow meter?
What is the process?
What is the piping?
What direction is the flow moving?
Is the flow meter the same size the process line it is installed in?
What is the conductivity of the process?
Is grounding required?
What is the preliminary set up?
Will it be buried underground?
Do I want an integral transmitter, or would a remote mounted configuration be better?

These are only some of the questions that need to be considered when installing a magnetic flow meter to get the most “bang for your buck.” Each one of these questions will have an impact on the total performance of not only the magnetic flow meter, but also your process.

What experience have you had with magnetic flow meters?