Water Timers?

[Aquattro]

Anyone use a timer on their RO system? I want to plumb my RO in to the house system full time, but only want it to run an hour per day. This is as a secondary backup to the pressure switch.

[abcha0s]

Yes. I do exactly that. On my old ro/di I installed a solenoid at the output. The solenoid is controlled by a timer (apex) and only allowed to run for 20% longer than required for the task it preforms. On my new ro/di (vertex) it requires power to operate. Same idea here. I connected the power to my controller and only allow it to operate for a predertmined amount of time.

Both units are always connected to the water source and I have never had even the slightest hint of a problem. Nor am I concerned about it.

[abcha0s]

For clarity - the primary shut off is the float valve and pressure solenoid built into the ro units. The "timer" is purely a backup.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by abcha0s

For clarity - the primary shut off is the float valve and pressure solenoid built into the ro units. The "timer" is purely a backup.

zactly. Got links to what you're using?

[Aquattro]

I looked at your build thread, the ATO diagram by itself was overwhelming!! My head hurts trying to figure it out

[Delphinus]

Sprinkler valve, 12v or 24v power supply, timer .... done? No?

[abcha0s]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I looked at your build thread, the ATO diagram by itself was overwhelming!! My head hurts trying to figure it out

I think that's a compliment?! - Thanks.

Anyway, it's really only complicated because I have two of everything and a bunch of float sensors as last resort fail safes. If you look at one piece by itself, it's the same as everyone else is doing.

I bought my solenoid from BWI. The nice thing about it is that it uses AC power, so there's no need to make any modifications.

http://www.bwiplumbing.com/products/...ohn-Guest.html

I''m pretty sure that this is a special order part as I had to wait several weeks for delivery.

If I were a betting man, I would speculate that this is the source.

http://www.autotopoff.com/solenoid/

I like the sprinkler valve idea, but I could never find a suitable 24V power source. Maybe I just didn't know where to look.

There's also the question of whether to put the valve before or after the ro/di unit. If you have a single input and a single output, then putting it between the source and the ro/di is probably the best thing to do. In my case, the output is tee'd and I wanted independent control of each line, so I installed it between the ro/di and the reservoir. I may revisit this in the future.

For what it's worth, I've had my crazy ATO fully operational on my 90G tank for some time now and it's so completely reliable that I have to consciously make an effort to check it's operation every so often. I generally never even think of this aspect of my system.