Re: Water changes - Water Stops - Going with the Grain

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Bill Wichers noted, re Daphne's auto siphon/refill setup:



 
> . . . My 
> expierience with my system is that the powerhead sucks a
> lot of air when the 
> water level gets near the intake, and this might be a
> problem for the 
> powerhead over time if it happens a lot.

Surely will.  It tends to loosen the impeller blade piece
where it mounts on the the rotor.  This piece can rotate
freeely on the rotor a little more tha 180 degrees.  This
allows the pump to start when the electricity is turned on
(AC motors don't care which way they spin or if they start
to spin at all).  If this piece gets damaged or excessively
worn, it becomes noisy.  But if I understand Daphne's set
up, she won't be running the powerhead except just to start
the siphon.  So it shouldn't be an issue for her set up.

  
> BTW, you could use a second solenoid valve running
> directly on house water 
> pressure to allow a programmed tank-fill cycle. Those
> sprinkler valves are 
> made to operate that way after all. 

A small amount of debris in the spinkler solenoid will keep
it from closing even when the power is cut.  I accidentally
ran one of my lawn sprinklers circuits all day long --
until I got home from work, opened, and flushed a few
grains of sand from the valve.

A float valve could key off of the water level, which is,
the genuine target -- perhaps more reliable. You could even
hide it in a resevoir, at the same elevation, connected by
a single hose or tube.  It would need to be strong enough
to hold back the inlet water pressure and, like a lawn
sprinkler solenoid, need to have it's input suitably
filtered against the grains.

Scott H.

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