Herbie drain is a pain

Potatohead · #1 07-12-2016, 04:49 PM

Does anyone else have to constantly fiddle with their drain? Mine will be set and level for 2 - 3 days and then over the course of like 12 hours it will start rising in the overflow. I thought it was my filter socks clogging but when it started rising I pulled the socks right out and it didn't go back down (mind you, I didn't leave it for hours like maybe I should have). Starting to wish I went with a beananimal style

. I backed off the valve like 1/100 of a turn and started the level in the overflow basically as low as I can, so we'll see if that helps, but I'm not super hopeful. Anyone figure out a solution?

Thanks

Ryanerickson · #2 07-12-2016, 06:27 PM

I had this issue turned out there was shells in my return pump causing inconstant flow. Are you using a gate valve to controller it ?

Potatohead · #3 07-12-2016, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryanerickson

I had this issue turned out there was shells in my return pump causing inconstant flow. Are you using a gate valve to controller it ?

I have a gate valve on the drain but nothing on the return. I thought that it could be varying return flow, it's possible, but it seems to me in that case the overflow level would go both up and down, not just up... But I could be wrong. I may add a ball valve on the outlet of the pump just to eliminate that possibility.

input80 · #4 07-12-2016, 07:31 PM

Check your pump, might be varying flow? I had the same issue with the level changing every couple of hours. Changed out the (seemingly failing) pump & haven't had a problem since.

Potatohead · #5 07-12-2016, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by input80

Check your pump, might be varying flow? I had the same issue with the level changing every couple of hours. Changed out the (seemingly failing) pump & haven't had a problem since.

Been thinking about this the last hour or so and I think what may be happening, is if the pump is getting periods of slightly higher voltage, (which likely happens depending on other loads on the circuit) it will increase flow very slightly. This of course is a problem because the drain isn't set up for the extra flow so water accumulates in the overflow. It has even gotten to the point where the DT level is rising. It then also gets exacerbated because the ATO keeps topping off before it actually should be.

So, if I get a ball valve on the return side and set it at or slightly lower than the current return rate, it should be more stable... In theory

. At the very least it eliminates another variable.

albert_dao · #6 07-12-2016, 08:15 PM

Are you able to raise the water so that you get a tiny trickle into the emergency drain? Cut it down a bit if need be.

mihaivapler · #7 07-12-2016, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Potatohead

Been thinking about this the last hour or so and I think what may be happening, is if the pump is getting periods of slightly higher voltage, (which likely happens depending on other loads on the circuit) it will increase flow very slightly. This of course is a problem because the drain isn't set up for the extra flow so water accumulates in the overflow. It has even gotten to the point where the DT level is rising. It then also gets exacerbated because the ATO keeps topping off before it actually should be.

If you have a DC pump then that's the problem.Some of them don't keep a constant voltage which result's in more or less flow(happens to me with jebao12000)What i did is i tuned the gate valve that is just flowing a tiny bit in the emergency drain and when start to push more water it goes down on the emergency,usually doesn't last for long and go back in level.