Float Valve

[Ardan]

A few months ago at a local Menards Store (similar to Home

Depot), I found a float valve used for cattle water troughs.

It usually has a garden hose hooked up to it and when the

water barrel empties a bit it allows water in. When the water

trough is full it stops incoming water.
I adapted it to the 1/4 inch RO water line (after the RO

unit).
On my RO setup I have an electric solonoid on a timer (along

with the RO booster pump). It is hard to set the timer

exactly to get the water barrel full.
I do not want my water barrel to overflow, so the float

valve here stops the water flow when the barrel is full.

It cost about 8 or 9 US dollars and has worked well for

about 3 months for me.

[Ardan]

photo #2

[Denny]

Ardan,

That looks alot stronger than the kent float valve I have and no ned to drill the container, I'll have to check them out. Can you post pix of how you have the whole setup working as I have a similar setup minus the solenoid and timer and want to do a similar thing with mine

denny

[Ardan]

These are the transformers. one is a 24 volt for the booster pump.
one is a 12 volt for the solenoid valve

[Ardan]

Here is one of 2 prefilters. They are Omni brand. One has a 20 micron filter, the second has a carbon filter to remove chlorine. They are one after the other, then the water line goes to the RO unit.
The booster pump is before the filters.

[Ardan]

Here is the booster pump on the left, the timer in the middle (the transformers plug into this, which starts the booster pump and opens the water solenoid valve),
the solenoid is the green thing to the left of the pressure gauge.

So, the order of the water is
1. water pipe
2. booster pump
3. filters
4. pressure gauge (this is not inline but on a T connector)
5. solenoid
6. RO unit
7. float valve on water barrel

[Denny]

:thumbsup:

[Ardan]

One other thought,
I use the pressure gauge to indicate when my prefilters (omni) are getting dirty and slowing the water output.
Usually I have incoming city water pressure at 60 psi.

If the booster pump is running and the filters are clean it runs at 95 to 100 psi.
As the filters get dirty the psi drops. When it gets to 80 to 85 psi , with the booster pump on, then I change the filters.
Here are the filter inserts for the Omni that I have used.

The one on the left is a new 20 micron insert Cost 2$ (this goes in the first Omni filter)
Next to that is a dirty one (note the rust and sediment coloring)
The blue one is a carbon insert. (this goes in the 2nd OMni.
The one on the right is a 1 micron carbon insert. (I have used this but it plugs more frequently and cost is 14$ each)

hth