Is redundancy needed with float valves?

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've been thinking alot about redundancy lately in case of equipment failure which has got me thinking. I don't think I've ever read anyone building in redundancy for a float valve. Are they reliable enough to not need it? For instance, I use a float valve on my rodi storage. Should I worry that one day, it will fail and drip water all over my floor? If so, how would you incorporate redundancy into a float valve?

 

[tkeracer619]

Float switch above it operating a solenoid valve. Yes, I always do this.

 

[mcgyvr]

Yes... Float valves certainly can fail and should be added to a preventative maintenance schedule as well as be used with a failsafe (timer/solenoid&float or whatever)..

NOTHING is perfect and when there is a potential for a flood you should ALWAYS build in redundancy

 

[billdogg]

I have only one float valve, on my mixing barrel coming from the RODI. It has failed before - well call it operator error - I bumped it while cleaning the barrel and didn't notice until I had about 50g of very clean water on my basement floor. The boss lady was not amused. At All. It stayed out of her craft room by a couple feet. What I did rather than install a second valve was to add a emergency overflow to the barrel using 1/2" cpvc that drains into the adjacent slop sink. Haven't had a flood since!

Anything and everything that is man made/mechanical can and will eventually fail for one reason or another. Taking steps to ward off the angry boss lady seems prudent.

 

[Rafty]

Why not just put a leak detector on the floor. Will then pickup any leak be it sump, mixing tank or RODI.


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[Kevin Guthrie]

I've had a float valve for 25 years on my RO/DI reservoir, no failures. But if it fails and the failure mode happens to be "doesn't close" instead of "doesn't open", I just end up with a wet basement floor all the way to the floor drain. I wouldn't use one on an ATO with no backup, because then "doesn't close" means massive problems.

Also since the RO/DI water is so clean I don't expect the valve to ever crud up.

 

[Tastee]

Yes, any mechanical item can fail. The more complex it is, the more likely to fail. In my opinion a float valve is more likely to fail off than on, but both could happen and as you said with very clean RODI water that reduces the chances quite a bit. Not 100% however.

In my case for my RODI station I don't have redundancy as it is outside and the worst that would happen is that I would waste water as the overflow would drain into the soil. In my sump however I have redundancy for my float valve controlled gravity fed ATO failing off and alerting and capacity to deal with it failing on.


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[ReefsandGeeks]

All good points. Looks like I should get some redundancy going just in case. My equipment is spread around in 3 different locations in my house, so may need to get a bit creative. I have my RODI filter by my laundry, RODI/salt mix storage in a different room in the basement, and an ATO under my tank which is a 5 gallon bucket with a float valve, and a ball valve that I open every day for an hour or so to refill the ATO. I have 1 leak detector on hand, so maybe I'll put that by the ATO bucket as a leak there would cause the most damage.

I acctually just noticed yesterday a drip comming from my RO housing. hoping the lid is just loose and needs replaced, or a bad O-Ring.

 

[Uncle99]

Yup, redundancy for water and heater, also contact heaters failure regularly, digital less frequent.
Simple Inkbird Temp controller will prevent the cooking of corals.

 

[reefgeezer]

Redundancy is a good thing. My ATO has a solenoid with a level switch, a high level switch, AND a float valve. It even has a low level switch to protect the solenoid.

 

[aquaman67]

Two is one and one is none.

Always have redundancy unless you have a fail safe.

For example, my RO/DI has an overflow hooked to drain so if the switch fails, there will be no flood.

The in tank ato has two switches.

 

[Tastee]

All good points. Looks like I should get some redundancy going just in case. My equipment is spread around in 3 different locations in my house, so may need to get a bit creative. I have my RODI filter by my laundry, RODI/salt mix storage in a different room in the basement, and an ATO under my tank which is a 5 gallon bucket with a float valve, and a ball valve that I open every day for an hour or so to refill the ATO. I have 1 leak detector on hand, so maybe I'll put that by the ATO bucket as a leak there would cause the most damage.

I acctually just noticed yesterday a drip comming from my RO housing. hoping the lid is just loose and needs replaced, or a bad O-Ring.

My ATO is also in my sump, the stock 8 litre RSR 250 ATO. I use the Neptune ATK to keep this filled, programmed to run once daily. The RSR has designed redundancy for the ATO as if it fails open and dumps the contents the sump has ample capacity to hold it. The ATK gives me 2 layers of redundancy built in, plus I have alerting beyond that, e.g. in case the ATO failed open and the ATK kept filling it up every day, which would eventually fill the sump and overflow the system. I would get Apex alerts before this happened for a couple of monitors however. I also use a low level sensor to alert me to the ATO failing off.

This is just the way I run my tank as I have an Apex, there are other ways to protect yourself. Good luck!


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