Trade Waste Monitoring Systems
If your business discharges to sewer under a trade waste permit, a monitoring system is how you know what is actually going down the drain — continuously, rather than once a quarter when someone takes a sample. Hinco Instruments supplies the instrumentation those systems are built from, and carries out trade waste sampling on site as well.
A trade waste monitoring system typically measures flow, pH and conductivity at the discharge point. Seventy years of instrumentation work in Western Australia sits behind what we supply and how we support it.
Specifying a system?
Tell us your pipe size, what you discharge and what your permit requires you to record. We will help you specify the right instruments.
Browse the instrumentation
Flow meters, pH and ORP electrodes, analysers and custom-built solutions for discharge monitoring.
What a trade waste monitoring system measures
Flow
How much you discharge, and when. Volume is what most trade waste charges are calculated on, so the flow meter is usually the first instrument in the system and the one the water authority cares about most.
pH and ORP
Almost every trade waste permit sets a pH band. Continuous pH measurement catches an excursion while you can still do something about it, rather than after the fact.
Conductivity and temperature
Conductivity gives a fast, robust indication that the character of the discharge has changed. Temperature limits also appear in many permits, particularly for food processing and laundries.
Instrumentation we supply
Euromag flow meters
Electromagnetic flow meters for full-bore and insertion installation — the MUT2200, MUT2300, MUT1222 insertion and M10 composite, with MC406 and MC608 converters.
pH and ORP electrodes
Georg Fischer 2724–2726 DryLoc pH and ORP electrodes, built for continuous in-line measurement in process and discharge water.
Analysers and custom builds
ABB ProcessMaster flow metering, multi-parameter analysers, and custom trade waste solutions built around the parameters your permit actually names.
Sampling and reporting
Alongside the instrumentation, we carry out trade waste sampling on site and provide you with a written report. We are not a plumbing contractor and we do not handle your permit negotiations — what we provide is the measurement and the record, so you have defensible numbers to work from and to submit.
Periodic sampling and continuous monitoring answer different questions. A sample tells you precisely what was in the discharge at one moment; a monitoring system tells you how it behaves all day, including during the process change or cleaning cycle you were not there to see. Most businesses under a permit end up wanting both.
Good to know
Industries we work with
Food and beverage production, commercial kitchens, manufacturing and metal finishing, vehicle and equipment washdown, laundries, and mine site and industrial facilities discharging to sewer.
Keeping a system honest
Installed sensors drift. A pH electrode reading two units out still reports a number, and the system will log it all day. We calibrate the sensors in your monitoring system so the record it produces is worth something.
A note on backflow prevention
Backflow prevention devices are a separate matter — they protect the drinking water supply and sit with plumbing rather than trade waste, though the two are often confused. We test and calibrate them as part of our pressure calibration work.
Other services
Instruments can be installed and commissioned as part of our on-site calibration services, and the sensors kept accurate through water quality and electrochemical sensor calibration. See also our full range of calibration and repair services.
Talk to us about trade waste monitoring
Tell us your site location, what you discharge, your pipe size and what your permit requires — whether you need instrumentation, sampling, or both.