millwaukie regulator
 

has anyone had problems with the seleniods mine keeps gettiing plugged or something. it will stop then i'll give it a tap and away it goes again for about 2 days then stops again. i tried varying preasure, toke it apart a cleaned it etc. etc.. i'm starting to think it's got a mind of it's own.
Any suggestions??

I found that I can't get mine to hold a setting the way they reccomend adjusting it. It would do exactly what you are experiencing. Instead, I set the pressure at about 10 psi and then control the bubble count with the needle valve. It has woked fine this way for 7 months keeping a steady flow rate.

I've gone through two solenoids so far from this company. Right now if the power goes out my solenoid won't close off my regulator. Let me know if you find a solution other than buying a new one. You are speaking about the solenoid and not the regulator? correct?

Bill

Yup I just recieved my 3rd Regulator from Milwaukee, this one is the first one where I actuall heard a click noise when I plugged the solinoid in. It's only been a week, but it's working perfect. If it's still under warranty, email them and they will send you a new solinoid.

I had the same problem with one of mine and they replaced it. Just a PITA waiting for the new one to arrive.

so i took mine apart yet again. i looks as though there is oxidization building up in the valve and seliniod, guess thats why they call them sel..i...niods they sell you anoying.............hahahhmmmm gee i need coffee or something.
Anyway the nearest i can figure is the water is working it's way back into or the gas is not clean. I am going to assume the gas is ok which means i am going to try not using the bubble counter on the valve. maybe put in a check valve as well. it was working fine until i ran out of co2 which may have been when the water seeped back in. it's all just a theory, i am alarmed at how many problems with these things i wonder if it is just Milwaukie product.

i'm sure that the problem was water getting into the valve and seleniod. i cue tipped it out, put it back together with out the milwaukie bubble counter, then i built a new inline bubble counter out of acrylic and mounted it above the sump no chance of water now since my sump is elevated. i use a small pump to feed but for the most part the water is fed into the reactor by gravity 1/2" going into reactor on the floor and 1/4" return uses the weight of the water and the preasure of the gas to return to the sump, there just isn't enough head height force to get up to the counter.
Of course i could have just raised the CO2 tank up instead but that would be too easy.... besides who wants to look at a tank and use up valuable shelf space at the same time.
hope this helps.

I've had nothing but problems with the millwaukie. Even at 10PSI the bubble rate keeps changing. I've got it hooked up on a controller and the darn solenoid got stuck open after an outage 3months ago. When the power came back on the solenoid never worked after. Got myself one of these recently and loving it
http://www.jlaquatics.com/images/cre...reg-nv-sol.jpg also hooked up a plastic check valve
http://www.plastomatic.com/cks-photo.jpg

Where can you get a check valve like that, Jesse?

I'll basically second everything said here. Except that I set my psi to 18 even, I found I wasn't getting too consistent of a flowrate at 10. It could be the checkvalve I use though needs a higher psi. I got one from Wendell, it's some German, big name brandname but I can't remember the name offhand.

Even at 18 psi I find I don't have the steadiest of drip rates. I'll count bubbles in a 30 or 60 second period to try to get a decent estimate of the bubble rate, because in 10 seconds there can be a impressive variance in the rate. Blip.. blip................ blip blip blip ..... blip ..... blip ... blip, blip, blip, ............. blipblipblip! .......... etc.

All I've ever used is Milwaulkee so I just thought all regulators were like this. Now I'm thinking I want to try that other one that props showed.