Waste water valve

[GlennT]

Waste water valve
Hi ... Just starting up & have aquired a 350 facelift 4 stage (a few years old). Not familiar with these systems. There is no valve on the waste pipe as it has been cut short. Spoke to wcw today & they said it needs a valve, also when the valve is closed it has a 2mm hole for the waste. Or even drill a hole. Can't see 1 of these valves on there site. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[ched999uk]

You can use a gate valve from a plumbers merchant and take it apart and drill the 2mm hole in it.

 

[GlennT]

You can use a gate valve from a plumbers merchant and take it apart and drill the 2mm hole in it.

Thanks.

 

[spruce]

I fitted a 1/2" gate valve (not 15mm) and drilled a 1mm hole in the paddle. This made sure that there would still be water going to waste if the tap was fully closed, but also gave me finite control over adjusting the amount of water going to waste by opening the gate valve a tad.

The hole Purefreedom drill in the gate valves they sell gives about a 3 waste to 1 pure ratio when fully closed when I last heard. Fine if you are in a hard water area, but not if you're water is soft to medium.

My system on our tap water works fine with 55/45 waste to pure which I can't achieve with their gate valve.

In time that hole will erode and become bigger meaning your waste water amount will increase. Mine is just at the stage of me needing to replace it after 10 years.

 

[GlennT]

valve

I fitted a 1/2" gate valve (not 15mm) and drilled a 1mm hole in the paddle. This made sure that there would still be water going to waste if the tap was fully closed, but also gave me finite control over adjusting the amount of water going to waste by opening the gate valve a tad.

The hole Purefreedom drill in the gate valves they sell gives about a 3 waste to 1 pure ratio when fully closed when I last heard. Fine if you are in a hard water area, but not if you're water is soft to medium.

My system on our tap water works fine with 55/45 waste to pure which I can't achieve with their gate valve.

In time that hole will erode and become bigger meaning your waste water amount will increase. Mine is just at the stage of me needing to replace it after 10 years.

Thanks for advice. I'm gonna drill a 2mm hole as the water is hard in my area

 

[spruce]

Thanks for advice. I'm gonna drill a 2mm hole as the water is hard in my area

You can always drill a smaller hole and open the gate valve a fraction. In time that 2mm hole will get bigger and you will have more water going to waste which will cost you on a water meter. You might even find that a 2 to 1 waste to pure ratio works for you, saving you a litre of water plus for every litre of pure you produce.

If you find it doesn't work for you then you can always drill a bigger hole in the future, but you can't go back and drill a smaller hole if you need to. My opinion.

 

[Gray]

I fitted a 1/2" gate valve (not 15mm) and drilled a 1mm hole in the paddle. This made sure that there would still be water going to waste if the tap was fully closed, but also gave me finite control over adjusting the amount of water going to waste by opening the gate valve a tad.

The hole Purefreedom drill in the gate valves they sell gives about a 3 waste to 1 pure ratio when fully closed when I last heard. Fine if you are in a hard water area, but not if you're water is soft to medium.

My system on our tap water works fine with 55/45 waste to pure which I can't achieve with their gate valve.

In time that hole will erode and become bigger meaning your waste water amount will increase. Mine is just at the stage of me needing to replace it after 10 years.

Hi Spruce,
Just bought a purefreedom 40/40, the waste to pure is running at 70/30 (waste-pure), phoned them and obviously found out about the 2mm hole in the gate valve, the system is only 2 yrs old so can't really understand why it's running so high with the waste, they say it should be 50/50. If I replace the gate valve with a new pre drilled one will it be similar ratio as now? Think the only way is to buy a standard one and drill a 1mm hole, how easy / difficult would this be to do. Thanks in advance.
Gray

 

[spruce]

Hi Spruce,
Just bought a purefreedom 40/40, the waste to pure is running at 70/30 (waste-pure), phoned them and obviously found out about the 2mm hole in the gate valve, the system is only 2 yrs old so can't really understand why it's running so high with the waste, they say it should be 50/50. If I replace the gate valve with a new pre drilled one will it be similar ratio as now? Think the only way is to buy a standard one and drill a 1mm hole, how easy / difficult would this be to do. Thanks in advance.
Gray

It's easy to do. You will probably have to order a 1/2" gate valve on the internet, then drill the hole in the paddle with a drilling machine.
If you are concerned where to drill the hole, look at the pf gate valve.

The idea pf had to drill that hole was a good one as the pure to waste ratio should be right when you completely shut the valve. But that hole does wear bigger with time. They also can't drill different holes to suit everyone water pressure and tap water tds.

Please bear in mind that you will not be able to completely close your new gate valve with that smaller hole. I put a mark on the handle of mine so know what to put it back to after flushing.

I have a inline TDs metre. I usually fine adjust my valve to where the TDs of the pure is at its lowest, as that's when the r/o is performing at it's optimum.

Water pressure and the state of my sediment filter (our water is full of sediment which restricts water flow) affect the pure to waste ratio so I regularly tweek the gate valve.