stupid question or not

[maco]

Hi everyone i have a 200l drum i use for changing water what i would like to find out is if i can use two float valves on one drum.
One a little less than halfway up and the other on top,one for RO water the other municipal water.What i really would like to know is will the weight of the water above the bottom float valve open it up.
Regards Maco

[Chad Hughes]

Hi everyone i have a 200l drum i use for changing water what i would like to find out is if i can use two float valves on one drum.
One a little less than halfway up and the other on top,one for RO water the other municipal water.What i really would like to know is will the weight of the water above the bottom float valve open it up.
Regards Maco

No question is a stupid one. :) The question that you don;t ask and causes a catastrophy is the stupid one. LOL!

To answer your question, yes, it will work. Float valves work on bouancy. That being said, it will float in the middle of a storage tank. What will be a little tricky is the fact that, when the barrel is empty, you have both water sources dumping in to the barrel at one time. It is possible to calibrate your system so that it will give you the same mix every time, but it will take some tinkering. I would put the tap float valve on the bottom. RO will fill slower than tap so it should be on top. Let the drum fill with tap first then top off with the RO over time.

I would recommend shutoff valves just before the floats so that you can shut them off when you are draining the drum during water changes. When you are done with the water change, turn them on an let the drum fill. Another thing to take in to consideration is the fact that you MUST drain the barrell 100% at each water change to maintain consistent storage water parameters or, over time, your water will become more diluted with RO.

Hope that helps!

[discussmith]

I know I posted this somewhere with pictures before but I don't remember where. Go to a garden center and get a drip system for your tap water feed. You will need a pressure regulator and an adjustable drip emmitter. You can then drip your tap water at a reduced rate to that of your RO feed and adjust to get whatever mix you want. Then it doesn't matter whether you start with an empty storage or not as you are always filling with the proper mix. You use two floats (one for each feed) and place them at the same level and they will both shut off when the storage is full, or at least close enough to not affect the mix.

[maco]

Thankyou for the info guys will try it out
Regards Maco

[Patr1ck]

I installed a bypass hose between the tap water inlet hose to the ro unit and the product water hose to the storage barrel. In this bypass hose I installed a ball valve (home depot $5.00). I use 1 float valve in the storage barrel. When I finish doing a wc I open the float valve, open the ball valve(in the bypass hose) and fill the barrel to a specific mark inside. Then I shut off the ball valve and forget about it as the ro unit takes over. It only takes a couple minutes to do this as it is under tap water pressure. Its real quick and easy. No worries about the float valve in the bottom half of your storage barrel. I can post a pic if you would like.

Pat

[maco]

Hi pat just read your reply now sounds good if you dont mind a picture
Thanks Maco
South Africa

[jeff@zina.com]

One issue with having a float valve submerged is that you won't get the proper mix. Minor lowering of the water level, such as evaporation, will only trigger the top valve. A better option is a mixing valve before the float valve, so the float valve only dispenses pre-mixed water.

A second issue is that submerged float valves have a tendency to leak, and thus not float as well.

Jeff

[maco]

Thanks for the info jeff,water doesn;t get chance to evaporate 200l barrel is divided
between 5 tanks so RO and municipal water on day and night.
As for bottom valve will it leak that much as to affect the mixture.
Regards Maco

[Patr1ck]

Hi pat just read your reply now sounds good if you dont mind a picture
Thanks Maco
South Africa

Here you go. Let me know if you need a pic of the storage barrel. I used a float valve from a water softener brine tank in it. Sorry about the poor art skills:o

Pat

[maco]

Thankyou for the picture Pat it helps a picture of the barrel will be great.
Regards Maco

[Patr1ck]

Thankyou for the picture Pat it helps a picture of the barrel will be great.
Regards Maco

Originally I used a brine tank for a water softener and the float valve assy that it came with. The whole kit cost about $100 USD. It ended up being too small for me (30 gallons). I have a 90 gallon aquarium and so I purchased a bigger storage barrel (55 gallon). I just transfered the float valve and support to the new barrel (55gal) and drilled the proper holes. I hope these pics help. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Pat

[maco]

Thankyou Pat for all the trouble have a better picture of it now will try it out.
Regards Maco South Africa

[Patr1ck]

Thankyou Pat for all the trouble have a better picture of it now will try it out.
Regards Maco South Africa

No trouble. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Pat