auto topoff question

anpgp I looked at that diy auto topoff from aquahub. I thought about getting it, but I'd have to have someone else put it together for me since I'm electrically challenged.

 

ATO's are nice. You dont have to get a solenoid based ATO system. You could use a simple float valve for the ATO for like $9.

 

My set up is almost identical to pgreef's. A Kent Marine Float valve hooked up to a resevior. For me, I used a 7 gal blue camping water jug from Walmart to reduce evaporation out of the ATO itself. The whole set up was maybe $20. Works like a charm.

M

 

I have my solenoid on a timer. It cannot kill my tank unless both the timer and the solenoid fail. Very, Very unlikely. Not to mention, I have no room for a reservoir tank.

 

I don't know much about ATO, but I just wanted to chime in and say that I was recommended the ATO device from Autotopoff by several people. Plus, it's cheap! I haven't hooked it up yet though.

 

I've got the JBJ ATO unit. It is $50 more than the one you've shown, but it has a lot of safeguards. Speaking as someone who lost an entire tank to a very poorly timed ATO failure (salinity dropped to 1.008 ), safeguards are good and for $50, I like everything the JBJ unit has to offer.

Also, some folks have mentioned plumbing directly from the RO unit to the sump. I'm not a fan of this for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is that most RO units take a little bit of time to get to max efficiency. This doesn't matter if you're filling a 5G bucket, as an example, because the first bit of less filtered water is literally a drop in the bucket compared to the rest. But when you are using a float valve hooked to an RO via solenoid, most of the water going into the tank is not fully filtered because much of it is when the RO unit is still in "start up" mode. It's not like this is a huge deal because the you're still getting pretty good water, but over time it means more pollutants getting into the tank. Secondly, there is no real failsafe unless you have a second float valve/shut off solenoid at a high water mark in the sump.

If there is one thing I would not skimp on at all, it's an ATO unit. No other single piece of equipment has the practical capability to crash your tank in a matter of hours. Think about it and the possible results of such. Not pretty and when it happened to me I went into a pretty severe depression for about a week. Not fun.

You will hear from a lot of people who say that their particular brand of ATO "works great" or "never had a problem." Frankly not having a problem on an ATO is not sufficient. Just because a particular brand has not failed for a particular user doesn't mean it won't happen to you. Look at what possible failures can occur and if there is something to mitigate the risk of those failures.

Lastly, if you need something now consider getting an Aqualifter or other small volume/time pump and put it on a digital timer. I did that for a while before I got my JBJ. You can tune it to get pretty darn close to matching your evaporation. While not perfect, it can hold you over until you can afford the unit you want.

 

I use the same float valve/set up and it works great. It's a simple, cheap and effective solution until you want to invest the cost of a more serious ATO system.

 

Hmmm... I was waffling between the JBJ ATO and the autotopoff.com one. I'm glad to get some feedback on so many ways to do this. Thanks guys!

 

Now I know why my toilet wont flush!!!

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I went the ultimate simple route for my ATO and used a reservoir fed through airline with a valve in it. It takes some tweaking, but it was made from stuff I had lying around, and it does it's job fairly well.

Where does everyone get the float valves from? I would like to install one, but not one that needs to be drilled. I've looked at the autotopoff.com one, but I don't want to spend that much.