Never find an empty trough too late again.
A wireless sensor in your stock trough warns you the moment the water drops: a stuck float, a dry line, an empty tank upstream. $399 with three months of connectivity included, so your animals always have water and you're not driving the run to check.
Includes 3 months of connectivity and full dashboard + mobile app access. Connectivity then from $10/month per device — discounts on annual subscriptions.
Early adopter US launch pricing — expected to rise as the rollout grows. The price you order at is the price you pay.
In stock in the US. Orders ship within 1–2 business days.
60-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty on every sensor.
Water problems shouldn’t wait for your next round
The worst place to learn a trough is empty is standing in front of it. A stuck float, a kinked line, or a dry tank upstream can leave stock without water for hours, and nobody knows until someone drives out. The Trough Level Monitor ends that for $399, three months of connectivity included. It watches the level around the clock and sends an alarm the moment the water drops, so you fix the cause instead of finding the result.
This is the same rugged, self-powered pressure sensing our customers run on dams and ponds, sized down to a water trough level sensor. A sealed sensor sits in the water on its cable and reads the depth from below the surface, and that design earns its keep in winter. When the top ices over, exactly when a trough is hardest to check and most critical to watch, an above-water sensor is looking at an ice cap; the submerged sensor keeps reading the water underneath. If your winters are hard, this is the technology built for them.
No power. No wiring. Years of battery life, and cellular reporting that reaches the back of the property. Put one on every trough and your whole watering system lives on one screen in your pocket, with more than four years in the field and 2,000+ Meterra devices in service behind it. That beats driving the run to eyeball water, every single day of the year. And when you’re ready for more than watching, the same readings can drive a pump controller, keeping the supply tank that feeds your troughs topped up automatically. That’s water system automation, built one sensor at a time.
The easiest install we sell
Of everything Meterra makes, this is the drop-and-go sensor. The install is two moves: set the sealed sensor in the trough, and mount the communication box somewhere the animals can’t reach it, a fence post works fine. That’s it. No bracket to fabricate, no aiming at the water surface, no calibration walk.
For comparison, our own ultrasonic sensor takes a little more work on open-air tanks and troughs: it reads the surface from above, so it needs a mount that holds it over the water at the right angle. On a closed tank with a fitting on top, that’s easy. Over an open trough, the trough monitor’s drop-in probe is the simpler tool, which is exactly why it’s the one we build for this job.
More real systems, and what each one changed, on the customer installs page.
The whole bill, in writing
$399 buys the monitor with three months of connectivity in the box; after that, plans start at $10/month per device. Sensors ship from US stock, and every one carries a 60-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty. If you’re comparing trough monitors, get every vendor’s total in writing: hardware plus the monthly service, for every watering point. A vendor who’s proud of the total posts it, and ours is posted. If someone else’s column genuinely comes back better for your watering points, buy theirs.
Run your trough count through the savings calculator to see what the daily water run is costing you, then order the Trough Level Monitor and let your phone drive the run instead.
Watering more than troughs? The same account covers tanks and dams too. Start from livestock water sensors to see the whole property on one screen.
Empty-trough alarm the moment it matters
A stuck float or a dry supply line can empty a trough in hours. Get an alert the instant the level drops instead of finding out on your next round.
Catches the problem upstream
A trough that won't fill usually means a fault back up the line. The alarm points you to it early, before stock go without water.
One screen for every trough
Put a sensor on each watering point and check them all from your phone instead of driving the whole run to eyeball them.
Self-powered, mounts anywhere
No power and no wiring at the trough. Years of battery life and cellular reporting mean it works in the farthest pasture.
Place it in the trough
Set the sealed sensor in the water and mount the communication box out of animal reach. A fence post works fine.
It connects itself
The sensor joins the cellular network on its own. No Wi-Fi or hub out in the pasture.
Get alerted, anywhere
See every trough's level in the app and get an alarm the second one runs low.
Watch them work together
The trough fills itself.
Every Meterra device is complete on its own. But the trough monitor and a controller share one platform, so the trough can call for water when stock draw it down — set the rule once, and it tops itself up from then on. Here’s the loop, sped up:
Sped-up example — you set the start and stop levels in the Meterra app. Every rule stays a manual button in the app too, and a separate high-level alarm can back the stop rule up.
The products in this simulation
Every device reports to the same Meterra dashboard and app.
Send us your site details and we'll send back pricing and the right setup.
| Sensing technology | Submerged pressure (hydrostatic) sensor on a cable |
|---|---|
| Measurement range | 3–15 ft of water, on a cable sized to the trough |
| Battery life | 3+ years, ultra-low power |
| Alarms | Low / empty level, configurable thresholds |
| Mounting | Submerged. The sealed sensor sits in the trough on its cable |
| Reporting | Hourly data to the Meterra app, plus instant alarms |
| Warranty | 60-day money-back guarantee, one-year warranty |
| Connectivity | Verizon NB-IoT cellular (coverage confirmed for your location) |
| Compliance | FCC compliant |
| Connectivity plan | 3 months included, then from $10/month per device (discounts on annual subscriptions) |
Price includes the sensor and 3 months of connectivity. US connectivity plans from $10/month per device after the bundled period; discounts on annual subscriptions.
The winter test
When the surface freezes over, we keep reading.
An ultrasonic sensor reads the first surface it hits — in a hard freeze, that’s the top of the ice. Meterra’s submerged pressure sensors read the water itself, so troughs, ponds, and dams keep reporting straight through winter, and a high-level alarm can still fire before an iced-over pond overflows.
One honest note: extreme cold shortens battery life on any electronics. We’ll help you plan for your climate.
Will it catch a stuck float?
Yes. A jammed float is exactly the failure this was built to catch. The trough stops refilling, the level drops, and the alarm hits your phone, often well before the animals would ever show you the problem.
Do I need one on every trough?
One per watering point gives you the full picture, and every sensor reports to the same app. Start where it hurts: your most remote or most troublesome troughs. Add from there.
Does it need power or Wi-Fi at the trough?
No. It runs on its own battery and reports over the cellular network by itself. It was built for troughs a long way from any building.
What does it cost?
The Trough Level Monitor is $399 in our US rollout, and that includes three months of connectivity plus full access to the dashboard and mobile app: live level, history, trends, and empty-trough alarms. After that, connectivity plans start at $10/month per device, with discounts on annual subscriptions. That's the whole bill, posted in writing; if you're pricing other systems, ask each vendor for its total in writing too. Every sensor carries a one-year warranty and a 60-day money-back guarantee. If it doesn't earn its place on your trough, send it back.
A practical place to start
Request pricing & availability
Share a few details and we’ll recommend the simplest setup that fits your operation—along with clear pricing and coverage information.
