Overpressure Shut-Off


  #1  
Old 03-24-09, 08:30 AM
R
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Overpressure Shut-Off

A home I purchased 5 years ago has a sprinkler system that takes water out of a lake via a submersible pump. It has 16 valves with a total of 63 sprinkler heads. The system was designed and installed by the previous owner who was an aerospace engineer and thought he knew everything. It originally had 8 zones, 2 valves per zone, on two old rainbird controllers which I have since replaced with the state of the art new rainbird controller. Over the past 2 years I have been steadily losing pressure, so much so that I had to go to 16 zones, 1 valve per zone. I thought the pump was failing because it was old, but it turns out that the submerged pipes were full of holes. I have replaced the pipes and had to go back to 2 valves per zone because the pressure is great once again!!!
Here is the problem: If one valve on any of the zones should fail, the pressure in the system will get too high, and I will get "water hammer," and conceivably do damage to the system when I am not there. There is a manual water heater type overpressure relief valve, but that doesn't help much.I cannot install any type of accumulator because of the way the system is plumbed.
Is there any type of pressure switch that I could put in the system that I can set to trip at about 60 PSI that will turn the system (or just the pump) off that REQUIRES A MANUAL RESET?

THANKS----SORRY TO BE SO WORDY.
ROORANCHER
 
  #2  
Old 03-24-09, 05:09 PM
T
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if you look for the keywords:

pressure relief valve pump

You should find what you need. Do a picture search first,... that should help.

You want this item on your mainline. The mainline is the pipe that is after the checkvalve on the pump and before any valve in the yard. Some of them come preset, others you can manually adjust.

If you have PVC pipe and not polypipe and are looking for an easier way to install this, try a PVC saddle. Just make sure you buy the right size and be careful when drilling the hole for the saddle or you will have to spend a LOT more time installing this.

Hopefully some of your pipe is exposed as this will make the work go easier.

Typically, the relief valve is very close to the well head (or on top of it). If you had a picture of the well head I could help you out more if you need it.

Try a plumbing or landscape supply store first. They will probably charge you more but you will probably end up with a better quality one.

They look similar to the kind that are on hot water heaters but dont use one made for hot water heaters.
 
 

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