Beware of Aqua UV min flow requirements

[piranhaman00]

My pentair has been run dry for hours before without issue

 

[NP57]

With the slow amount of flow you had running through the UV, there's a good chance you had an air gap at the top of the UV, there's 3" of space up there. There wasn't enough pressure to flush out the air that can get trapped up there and it heated up. If you're going to run it that slow, turn the unit horizontal with the fittings up so the air can naturally escape.

When we install vipers, they have the lay flat below the system so no air is trapped in the housing.

Thats a good point however in my case when I took the large top cap off to take the glass tube out for cleaning, water was overflowing so no air was present.

 

[SPS2020]

If you compare AUV min flow rate to that of Pentair it's approx. 3X. How can this be for virtually the same UV system. Pentair recommends 260-350 gph for Protazoa kill.

I got nothin'...just posting the mfr info. Mine's been fine operating at less than that value, as have others. You can have a look at my mounting technique in my build thread. There's not a chance of air in the chamber.

 

[NP57]

Their claim could very well be 100% spot on as there larger UV's ( The Viper Series ) incorporates a paddle flow sensor that actually will shut the UV light off if the flow falls below their recommendation of minimum flow.

I had about 6 or so of there 800 watt Vipers on a very large commercial system. They will shut off if minimum is not flowing through. This has more to do with the sch 80 PVC heat not the bulb and the wiring.

I can appreciate the PVC deteriorating if over exposed to UV. My AUV issue is clearly electrical

 

[a.t.t.r]

buy a new one throw the old part in the box and return it. Screw em they are full of it.

 

[wills612]

I've had several 57W ballasts die. One didn't even last a year. They get very, very warm and the transformers are sealed so there's no airflow. My 25W ballast lasted something like 2-3 years which I kind of expected since it's lower power.

I cut one of them open years ago trying to figure out if I could replace the transformer. Well, you can't but you can salvage the old wiring (if it's undamaged) and connectors and wire them to a generic (and much cheaper) transformer.

I still have that cut open ballast somewhere so I could try to get the specs from it and search for a suitable generic transformer.

Got any Info or specs for a generic transformer. I opened up the case but no info on the unit. They seemed to have peeled the id label.