Using RO/DI as an ATO?

I've been doing it 5 years with a solenoid to open it run of my rkl. I had three autotopoff.com solenoids fail within 4 months, then did some research and bought a commercial grade solenoid. No problems since.

 

Hmm..good to know bill thanks. If the solenoids fail then they will remain open or will not open when the switch goes off?

 

Any information for a commercial solenoid ? Links to where you bought it ?

 

Funny, i was thinking about a solenoid valve last night. Can you link to the solenoid valve u have?

 

OH, the 1/4in. tubing? I bought a roll of like 100ft, for real cheap at a Menards. It's like a HD store. It's using for running to ice makers and such.
I ran it from my RO/DI unit under my kitchen sink, thru the basement ceiling, to the sump.

The way I have mine set up, the valve is above the water line, and the float is very adjustable to get you sump compartment level where you want it, and it's real easy to move.

Selenoids? Mine works off no electrical power what so ever.

In reality, the ATO only needs to trickle some water in every so often- which keeps the SG very constant.
So with my brass cut uff valve just before the sump, I keep it barely open, so when the valve is all the say open, like when I manually push on it, it only trickles. Works great!

No more filling ATO tubs, no more manual ATO's, etc.
Like Scuba Ken said, is it perfect and fool proof? No, few things are.

Like I said, with the well build, heavy duty all plastic float valve like I have, when the water level is up, it SHUTS the valve, no way around it.

BEWARE- I bought a quality one b/c I read posts when building mine about some cheapy-thin plasitc floats the actually BROKE, when the water level came up in the sump.

Only about a 1/4 of my float is in the water, and it shuts the valve.
The valve only sees RO/DI water, and it's all heavy plastic.

 

Yeah we have menards stores around here too, i didn't think about just picking some up there. I was thinking i would need to order it. I might get some this wknd and get it ran through the crawlspace. The solenoid valve would be better bc you would use it in place of a pump on a normal 2 float switch ato system. That way you have a failsafe. Instead of the ato system turning on a pump, it would open the solenoid valve.

 

Float valves fail, plain and simple. You hear toilet tanks running, evaporative coolers overflowing and swiming pool self levels overflowing all the time. They are a simple mechanical device and prone to failure.

Never hook a RO/DI directly to a sump or display. Always have an ATO reservoir as a buffer so with its limited volume you cannot possible flood your system with so much fresh ROI/DI to kill things off.

There are dozens of options if not more and many are very inexpensive and simple. Myself I never trust float valves so on my ATO storage use a solenoid valve and low voltage DC float switches which are intrensically safe around water. for my sump I use a digital air switch device and peristaltic pump with additional safety measures built in. Both Spectrapure and Tunze use this method and its very robust.

 

Can you provide a link to the solenoid valve that you use on your ato storage container?

 

Solenoid Valve Controller by SpectraPure

They also offer many other options here:
LIQUID LEVEL CONTROLLERS

and here are installation drawings for many of them under level control kits and solenoid valve control:
LIQUID LEVEL CONTROLLERS

and here are all the owners manuals under level controls:

SPECTRAPURE MANUALS

 

Thanks alot man. Just what i was looking for