ditttohead
Water systems designer, R&D
I understand your concerns, but... Plastic is it for water treatment now. Gone are the days of the 2750 valve, or the old Culligans with the exposed micro switches that would short on the enclosure if you did not remove the timer with the greatest of caution. Even the 9000 is almost a dead valve due to the introduction of the 9100. The original electro-mechanical 5000 was not a good valve, but that was over a decade ago. Same for the 8500, a great idea, but a bad valve. The plastic piston rod has been used for many years without fail. Plastic pistons and rods were frowned upon years ago, but now they are considered as good as the teflon coated brass pistons. I have been runing my 5800 test bench 24/7 at 150 PSI, just going in circles over and over again for over a month, no problem yet. This is some extreme testing for any valve, it has passed every reasonable test we have thrown at it. This is a lot more that can be said for most of the valves we test here. I am fairly confident the 5800 will be a very popular valve, and it should hold up as well as 7000, 5600 or WS1.
Re: the tabs on the 7000, we have intentionally broken them and tested the valve, no problem, but I would recommend installing the "UPS" screw if you do this. Even so, the plastic piece that you are referring to 40979 is less than $10, I would not worry too much about it.Considering the valve only needs rebuilding every 10 years or so... and since the valve has only been in the field for a little longer than a decade, we still see very few rebuilds being necessary. I only stock a few dozen rebuild kits, as opposed to the boxes of 5600 rebuild parts we stock. Then again, the 5600 has been in the field for over 30 years and it is the best selling control of all time, so a lot of companies make a good living off of rebuilding them.
Re: the tabs on the 7000, we have intentionally broken them and tested the valve, no problem, but I would recommend installing the "UPS" screw if you do this. Even so, the plastic piece that you are referring to 40979 is less than $10, I would not worry too much about it.Considering the valve only needs rebuilding every 10 years or so... and since the valve has only been in the field for a little longer than a decade, we still see very few rebuilds being necessary. I only stock a few dozen rebuild kits, as opposed to the boxes of 5600 rebuild parts we stock. Then again, the 5600 has been in the field for over 30 years and it is the best selling control of all time, so a lot of companies make a good living off of rebuilding them.