My Auto Fill Valve was not working.

I have chosen to remove-it.

I have disconnected-it from the gray [in color] NSF Tubing and have cut the adaptors off the tubing ends where they connected on either side to the solenoid/valve.

I then took a 10 inch piece of clear, re-enforced plastic tubing [5/8 I.D.] and spliced-it-in where the valve once was, applying a couple of hose clamps to the ends.

Everything seems to work fine [no leaks] after bringing my water system back-on-line following winter storage.

Does it sound-like I did this correctly??? ...or is there another method that should be used in removing the Auto Fill Valve???

I couldn't believe how heavy that "thing" was. Obviously designed and made for some-sort of industrial use and must have been the only thing available for this purpose 15 years ago.

Is there a lighter-weight replacement valve/solenoid availabe today???

You done good, but for one thing. Without a valve in the system, when you hook up to city water it will run into your tank, & overflow.

I suggest you install a hardware store plastic manual shut-off valve in place of the autofill valve. That will isolate your city water system from the tank when the valve is closed, & allow you to fill the tank from city water when it's open. Otherwise you could plug both ends of the gray pipe, and fill the tank manually from outside. Your hardware store valve will probably be white plastic, not gray, but don't sweat it. It'll work just the same.

The hardware store valves work fine with the existing polybutyl plumbing. They have barbed ends that push tightly into the plastic pipe, with collars that thread on after they're connected, and tighten by hand. Just be sure you slip the collar onto the pipe before you plug the valve in, otherwise you'll have to start over. The barb should be lubricated when you slip it in, and the gray pipe needs to be warm enough so it isn't brittle.

If you've cut off too much of the original pipe, the valve should work just as well with the tubing you spliced in, though you may have to do some more cutting & fitting to get it all together.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
Without a valve in the system, when you hook up to city water it will run into your tank, & overflow.

I suggest you install a hardware store plastic manual shut-off valve in place of the autofill valve. That will isolate your city water system from the tank when the valve is closed, & allow you to fill the tank from city water when it's open.

This is how mine is hooked up. When you hook up to water you open this valve to refill the tank. If your plugged into a place that supplies you water you keep it turned off and run off of there water psi.

I only question how you were able to get water psi in your system again without a manual shutoff in there already. I would think that once you turned on your water pump it would have just pumped back into your tank and you would have low water psi.

Agree with both Bill's.

I had mine fail on vacation (it stuck open) and I came back to find a 10' diameter puddle underneath my Barth.

Well, after having myself defibrillated a couple times to restart my heart, I found that the solenoid had failed and allowed my water tank to overflow.

Thank goodness it vented outside.

I replaced the "automatic" solenoid controlled valve with the same type of NSF Gray plumbing, and put a manual valve where the auto one had been before.

You NEED a valve.. on mine the rest of the plumbing will be starved due to the fresh tank being filled and sucking pressure away. Furthermore, it will eventually overflow without the ability to shut off water going into your fresh tank. It is a tad more bothersome to turn a valve to fill one's tank, but you won't have to worry about it failing like the solenoid one.

Bill N.Y. is the winner on this one, as there is already a valve on this line, as was originally installed by Barth [I'm assuming].

Yep... It's got to be shut or the water would just return to the tank with low pressure ...reminds-me of pump cooling techniques from the firefighting days.

Anyway, It's fun to experiment, then run-it-by you guys to see if I actually did something right once-in-a-while.

Save that "defibrillating" for the patients Mr. Darlymple ...we'll have to have a little PARAMEDIC dialog one of these days!

Thanks again gentlemen!

I'd bet your manual valve was installed by an owner, not the factory. There have been enough frustrated posts about from autofill failure, that I doubt if the factory put 2 valves in the line. My autofill still works, but the next time it fails I'll install the manual valve already waiting in my junk box.

Hi,

The guy I bought my Barth from put a ball valve in and it works great. The only drawback is I have to take out my bottom drawer to get to the valve. Oh well!

I'm pretty certian that the ball-valve in my Regency was manufacturer installed, along-with the Auto-Fill Solenoid / Valve.

It's all piped-in with the gray NSF Tubing and valves of same material. 3 valves total ...one for each 50 gallon tank and one to isolate the Auto-Fill Valve. All located in the water control cabinet with most of the other valves, pump, and water tank access.

Everything is working great ...no leaks ...quiet ...plenty of pressure.