Zachrey
New Member
Greetings!
My wife, Nicole, and I live at the Greater World Earthship subdivision near Taos, New Mexico. All the homes in this 630 acre subdivision are completely off the grid. The homes heat and cool themselves and provide water, hot water, electricity and on-site, contained, sewage treatment systems using nothing but the sunshine and rainfall that strikes the home (www.greaterworld.org).
We have 3,600 gallons of cistern storage for the rain that lands on our metal roof that is pressurized with a Shurflo 24Vdc pump. Since the pressure switch on the Shurflo failed (open circuit, thank God), I added a Square D Pumptrol 30/50 switch which works very nicely (very quick and clean cutoff when the pressure hits 50psi). The only problem is the washing machine now triggers an oscillation.
When the solenoid valve in the washing machine opens or closes (I'm not sure which or both) AND the standing pressure of the system is somewhat close to the cut-in pressure of about 30 PSI, the Pumptrol will cut-in, cut-off, cut-in, cut-off ad nauseum with a period of about 1 second until I open a valve or unplug the Shurflo 24V pump.
I installed a Sioux Chief 600H Mini-Rester water hammer arrestor on both the hot and cold water feeds to the washing machine. This did not solve the problem!?!
While troubleshooting previous problems, I had drained the pressure tank and the pre-charge was about 25psi (using a tire pressure gauge that is not the most accurate in the world). Pumptrol cut-in is about 30psi according to the water pressure gauge on the system.
The Pumptrol switch is about 1 foot away from the Shurflo pump. The pressure tank is about 8 feet away from the Pumptrol switch with the water line running just underneath the brick floor. I'm not sure how long the line is from the washing machine to the pressure switch since I wasn't the one to install it, but I believe they went up into the ceiling and then back down for some of the pipe runs (they used Wirsbo Pex).
Where is the best place for the pressure switch? Should it be by the pressure tank?
I have a third Mini-Restor 600H. Should I install this next to the Pumptrol?
Now we also have a Solahart 302 Black Chrome 80 gallon solar hot water heater on the roof (the 80 gallon tank is on the roof). The cold water feed to the Solahart is about 15 feet long from the floor to the tank on roof. Could that be a problem somehow?
I also tried increasing the pressure difference between cut-in and cut-off but it didn't seem to help. I'm pretty much baffled at this point! I know it has to do with the momentum of water and sudden changes in water flow but what is the simplest solution?
Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions!
My wife, Nicole, and I live at the Greater World Earthship subdivision near Taos, New Mexico. All the homes in this 630 acre subdivision are completely off the grid. The homes heat and cool themselves and provide water, hot water, electricity and on-site, contained, sewage treatment systems using nothing but the sunshine and rainfall that strikes the home (www.greaterworld.org).
We have 3,600 gallons of cistern storage for the rain that lands on our metal roof that is pressurized with a Shurflo 24Vdc pump. Since the pressure switch on the Shurflo failed (open circuit, thank God), I added a Square D Pumptrol 30/50 switch which works very nicely (very quick and clean cutoff when the pressure hits 50psi). The only problem is the washing machine now triggers an oscillation.
When the solenoid valve in the washing machine opens or closes (I'm not sure which or both) AND the standing pressure of the system is somewhat close to the cut-in pressure of about 30 PSI, the Pumptrol will cut-in, cut-off, cut-in, cut-off ad nauseum with a period of about 1 second until I open a valve or unplug the Shurflo 24V pump.
I installed a Sioux Chief 600H Mini-Rester water hammer arrestor on both the hot and cold water feeds to the washing machine. This did not solve the problem!?!
While troubleshooting previous problems, I had drained the pressure tank and the pre-charge was about 25psi (using a tire pressure gauge that is not the most accurate in the world). Pumptrol cut-in is about 30psi according to the water pressure gauge on the system.
The Pumptrol switch is about 1 foot away from the Shurflo pump. The pressure tank is about 8 feet away from the Pumptrol switch with the water line running just underneath the brick floor. I'm not sure how long the line is from the washing machine to the pressure switch since I wasn't the one to install it, but I believe they went up into the ceiling and then back down for some of the pipe runs (they used Wirsbo Pex).
Where is the best place for the pressure switch? Should it be by the pressure tank?
I have a third Mini-Restor 600H. Should I install this next to the Pumptrol?
Now we also have a Solahart 302 Black Chrome 80 gallon solar hot water heater on the roof (the 80 gallon tank is on the roof). The cold water feed to the Solahart is about 15 feet long from the floor to the tank on roof. Could that be a problem somehow?
I also tried increasing the pressure difference between cut-in and cut-off but it didn't seem to help. I'm pretty much baffled at this point! I know it has to do with the momentum of water and sudden changes in water flow but what is the simplest solution?
Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions!
Attachments
Last edited by a moderator: