# Flow sensor wire



## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

I'm going to be installing my in-ground irrigation system soon and I'm in the home stretch of purchasing supplies. One of the last few things I'm looking for is 18/2 shielded wire for the flow sensor. I can't seem to find it anywhere, and when I found some online it was $6 worth of wire (I only need 20ft) and $16 worth of shipping. No thanks. Does anyone know a good place to get wire that's not a ripoff? Went to HD and Lowe's and could barely find someone to help. When someone was able to help at Lowe's they couldn't find it. Is shielded wire 100% necessary? The instructions on the hunter flow sensor say that it should be used if the wire will run next to a building. Well, my controller will be in my basement and the wire will run out through the wall and into the ground, but it *will* be near the wire for the valves, so that's the only thing that could interfere with its signal. Wondering if anyone has experience with this situation. Thanks for any advice/help!


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

My flow meter is wireless, so no experience with a flow meter wire. But I think it make sense to use shielded twisted pair wire. The 24V valve wire can induce a signal to the flow meter wire via magnetic field. The shield and twisted will help prevent it. I'm assuming the flow is sending a variable amp or voltage that the controller reads.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Yeah, the flow sensor sends a pulse back to the controller every 1 US Gallon. Finding shielded 2 conductor cable has been much harder than I'd anticipated.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Well hot dang. Turns out if you search for "flow sensor wire" instead of "shielded wire" everybody and their mother sells it. Super annoyed that I didn't do that in my first order from Sprinkler Warehouse where I got all my other supplies and will likely have to pay a bunch of shipping...


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