Why sewer monitoring trials stall and how to run one that scales

Step 1 – Get clear on what you are trialling

This sounds like a silly one to start with, but a lot of teams decide to start a water monitoring project and jump straight to looking at hardware. In our experience, the projects that move beyond the pilot stage are very specific early on in the problem they are trying to solve.

Common starting points include:

• Reducing dry weather overflows at known hotspots
• Identifying I&I during rainfall events
• Getting early warning before a customer calls
• Building evidence to support capital works funding
• Or simply, getting ahead of the fines

Avoid trying to solve everything at once. Often with one, the others will come but a tight scope makes results easier to measure and defend internally.

A simple test is this question: if the trial works, what decision will it help you make? 

Step 2 – Pick the right sites, not the obvious ones

It’s tempting to just go to that site that keeps giving you problems. Often this is right, but other factors need to be considered.

For a first trial, look for sites that:

• Have a known history, but are safe and easy to access
• Represent a wider class of assets on your network
• Are likely to show change over weeks, not years.

In a trial, you want data quickly. A site that overflows once a year won't prove much in a three-month trial.

Our sweet spot for successful trials is to start with five to ten sites. That is usually enough to see patterns without creating operational noise.

Step 3 – Understand what makes sewer monitoring hard

A trial will only succeed if the hardware is designed specifically for sewer environments

Sewers are one of the harshest places you can put electronics. A trial will only succeed if the hardware is designed specifically for sewer environments. Things to look out for:

• Enclosures and seals designed for full submersion and long-term exposure
• Materials and construction that can handle corrosive gases and constant condensation
• Connectivity designed for below-ground installs, without reliance on fragile external antennas
• Battery systems engineered for multi-year life through low-power design, and in-field swaps

Ask vendors specifically how their hardware addresses these conditions – and not in theory, but in the field.

At Kallipr, our Captis S2 and Spectra ranges have been designed to thrive in the sewer environment. They are beyond IP68 rated, tested for submersion and designed to operate for years on a single battery with very low transmission overhead. And the battery can be swapped in the field very easily. The aim is simple – install once and leave it alone. 

Step 4 – Installation matters more than you think

Installs are where many trials die. You can easily install 5 to 10 sites. But what happens when you want to scale to 100 or 1000 sites, and each install is taking hours? Your business case starts to not stack up very quickly.

When assessing a vendor, you should ask the following questions:

• How long does a typical install take?
• Can you configure on-site?
• Is connectivity done on-site?
• What tools do you need to install, and is there an app?
• Are any works required (such as sewer lid adaptation or trenching)?

Modern sewer monitoring solutions should be installed in minutes. Kallipr takes 30 minutes. We have had installers hit 29 in one day. This makes scaling less painful and means you’re getting data much quicker. 

Step 5 – Decide what data you actually need

More data is not always better data. Most trials start with:

• Level
• Rate of change
• Simple alerts based on thresholds or patterns

Avoid dashboards with dozens of charts no one looks at. Instead, focus directly on the things that operators look at.

Good platforms let you tune this as you go. At Kallipr, customers often start with basic level alerts, like the water is starting to hit high thresholds, then layer in rainfall correlation, overflow prediction, or network views once trust in data is established. 

Step 6 – Choose a vendor, not just a solution

This is the step many teams underestimate. A sewer monitoring trial is not just a box in a manhole. It is hardware, connectivity, software, support and accountability. If these are all managed by different vendors, you will have problems.

Key questions to ask your vendors:

• Who owns end-to-end performance?
• Is connectivity included, or do you manage SIMs?
• How is data delivered and integrated?
• What happens when something stops reporting?

Kallipr often works with teams on a managed basis, where hardware, connectivity and software sit under one contract. That removes finger-pointing during a trial and keeps the focus on outcomes.

Step 7 - Define success before you start

A good partner will design the trial to hit those markers, not just deploy sensors and walk away

Write down what success looks like and agree on it internally. A few examples include:

• Zero unplanned call-outs at monitored sites
• X number of early warnings before overflow
• Clear evidence of I and I during rain events
• Crew feedback that data changed how they work

Share this with your vendor. A good partner will design the trial to hit those markers, not just deploy sensors and walk away.

Step 8 - Plan for scale, even if you never get there

Even if this is only a trial, ask how it would scale. Consider the following: 

• How devices are provisioned and managed
• Whether the platform supports hundreds or thousands of sites
• How data is shared across teams

Trials that succeed often move fast. The last thing you want is to restart from scratch because the pilot technology cannot grow with you.

Final thought

If you are planning a trial or trying to work out why past pilots stalled, the Kallipr team can help you scope sites, choose the right hardware, and design a trial 

Sewer monitoring has promised a lot over the years. The difference now is that installation, battery life and software maturity have caught up with the need.

A well-run trial does not need to be risky or expensive. It needs to be practical, focused and grounded in how sewer teams actually work.Get those basics right, and the data will do the rest.

If you are planning a trial or trying to work out why past pilots stalled, the Kallipr team can help you scope sites, choose the right hardware, and design a trial that proves value quickly and scales cleanly.

Get in touch with Kallipr to talk through a practical sewer monitoring trial built for real-world networks.