I emailed Bill on a new purchase inquiry and he was able to respond within 6 hours.
I'm now very hesitant to buy it from him after reading the last couple posts.
I'm now very hesitant to buy it from him after reading the last couple posts.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
He's quick to answer if he doesn't recognize your number. He did replace a controller for me after hounding him for weeks on Face Book. He's on Face book almost every day, you just have to join the group.I emailed Bill on a new purchase inquiry and he was able to respond within 6 hours.
I'm now very hesitant to buy it from him after reading the last couple posts.
I don’t see any way to join his group on FB. Found his page but it doesn’t look active. Called from a few numbers, no dice
Then you let people know, so they're understanding, simple as that. Also, people don't generally care when a CEO has personal problems, as it isn't considered in the warranty. My personal problems have no bearing when I can't pay a bill, but I'm supposed to shop simpathy when the product I paid an exorbitant amount of money for doesn't work AT ALL?
Exorbitant is an exaggeration. The price is higher then other CR but exorbitant, no. I agree his customer service skills aren’t the greatest. That’s the same reason Marine Depot is out of business. The guy has skills building things. He’s an artist, you have to be patient with this type of personality but in our hobby the parameters are to narrow to have patience for divas.Then you let people know, so they're understanding, simple as that. Also, people don't generally care when a CEO has personal problems, as it isn't considered in the warranty. My personal problems have no bearing when I can't pay a bill, but I'm supposed to shop simpathy when the product I paid an exorbitant amount of money for doesn't work AT ALL?
When you have a chance, can you please post the exact part # for your setup? I just fired up my slightly used ACR and it's performing as it should with the factory controller. I would like to have a backup in place or perhaps switch over to something like your setup. I was considering the Carbon doser controlled with a breakout box and the float switch in the ACR but your setup has me very curious. Thanks in advance......................An update on my replacement of the factory controller with a Clippard valve. Everything has worked flawlessly.
The inclusion of the IFM pressure sensor proved handy as the Clippard valve is too quiet to hear during operation. By periodically monitoring the sensor, I was able to correlate the readings to the cycling of the Clippard valve. When the valve cycles, the reading on the senor jumps to 6 PSI and then drops to 5 PSI rather quickly. It remains at 5 PSI for a bit and then starts oscillating between 5 and 4 PSI. Once it settles on 4 PSI it remains at that value for several minutes and then starts oscillating between 4 and 3 PSI. Once it finally settles at 3 PSI, it remains there until the float switch cycles the valve and restarts the process. When my alkalinity goes too high, and the peristaltic pump is shutdown by my Alkatronic , the cycling of the ACR slows to a crawl and eventually stops, just as you would expect it would.
So for anyone who is looking to use a peristaltic pump with their ACR, a Clippard valve makes a great replacement for controlling the CO2. The valve I am using is the same type as used in the Carbon Doser if you are familiar with that product.
Dennis
Sure, no problem.When you have a chance, can you please post the exact part # for your setup? I just fired up my slightly used ACR and it's performing as it should with the factory controller. I would like to have a backup in place or perhaps switch over to something like your setup. I was considering the Carbon doser controlled with a breakout box and the float switch in the ACR but your setup has me very curious. Thanks in advance.
Is the Clippard valve an "aftermarket" swap or something from Bill?While working on something this morning I noticed that the Clippard valve has a different operation pattern than the factory controller solenoid. I had my head down close enough to the valve to hear the faint tick as it energized for a brief moment and then several seconds later energized again. The pause between being energized was much shorter than previously with the factory solenoid. The frequency of the CO2 addition is governed by the amount of flow going through the reactor, but the Clippard valve that replaced the factory solenoid seems to add CO2 in much smaller amounts then the solenoid was able to. I would hear the loud clack of the solenoid toggling as infrequently as once an hour before, where the Clippard now energizes multiple times per minute.
This makes sense as the travel on the Clippard valve, between being open and closed is only 0.007" instead of the assumed much larger travel of the solenoid. So the Clippard valve is able to open and close faster and track the level of the float switch much closer, allowing the CO2 additions to be tiny compared to before the change.
Dennis
No, my replacement of the factory solenoid with the Clippard has nothing to do with Bill. It is an off the shelf industrial pneumatic valve that I replaced the functions of the factory solenoid with. I had grown dissatisfied with the pinch valve portion of the factory controller early on and had started using a Masterflex pump to drive the ACR and then eventually replaced the CO2 control of the factory solenoid with the external Clippard valve.Is the Clippard valve an "aftermarket" swap or something from Bill?
Hey Dennis, need your help with my ACR. Have had it for 2 years and has mostly worked as expected. Then about 2 months back it started getting 1” of “air” and I haven’t been able to get it working consistently since. So a few weeks ago I then swapped to Bill’s newest controller which has a pinch valve for the effluent and for the CO2. No matter what I do, I’m getting a1-2” air pocket and it’s def not air bubbles (confirmed by running sicce feed pump in bucket next to it and had same issue)…it’s excess CO2 building up…to the point of dropping right below the recirculating pump input so it’s basically DOA at that pointI am going to make a slight change to how I have the IFM pressure transducer and Clippard valve wired. The PN5004 that I am using as a passive display of the internal reactor pressure has a single output that is going unused at the moment. After hearing about an ACR that was damaged from being accidentally over pressurized, I am going to wire the Clippard valve to the unused output, through the float switch, to protect my ACR from an over pressure situation.
The way it will work is that the IFM output will be configured to a hysteresis PNP normally closed setting, with a trigger pressure of 10 PSI and a reset pressure of 9 PSI. This will provide 24v to the Clippard only until the internal pressure inside the reactor reaches 10 PSI (or any pressure I configure the IFM to use). Then the output of the IFM will drop to ground, preventing the float switch from opening the Clippard to add more CO2. Once the pressure inside the ACR drops to 9 PSI (hopefully due to the CO2 being dissolved into the water column in the reactor), the IFM will again pull it's output high (24v) and the float switch will again be able to control the CO2 addition through the Clippard.
I thought about using the output when I was putting the Clippard onto the ACR originally, but had not used that feature of the IFM yet at that point. After using this capability in my auto tank switcher, and discussing with @theatrus the ways that an IFM transducer could be used to help with end of tank dumping in single stage regulator setups, and then hearing about the over pressure accident, using the IFM to protect against this seems like a perfect solution.
The tweak has now been completed and is working as expected.
Dennis
Sorry you are having so much trouble with the controller, but frankly I am not surprised. Everything you have experienced, I have experienced when I was using the factory controller. The factory controller is terrible and is a ticking time bomb in my opinion.Hey Dennis, need your help with my ACR. Have had it for 2 years and has mostly worked as expected. Then about 2 months back it started getting 1” of “air” and I haven’t been able to get it working consistently since. So a few weeks ago I then swapped to Bill’s newest controller which has a pinch valve for the effluent and for the CO2. No matter what I do, I’m getting a1-2” air pocket and it’s def not air bubbles (confirmed by running sicce feed pump in bucket next to it and had same issue)…it’s excess CO2 building up…to the point of dropping right below the recirculating pump input so it’s basically DOA at that point
Bill said with these new pinch valves on the CO2 line, if the CO2 pressure is up too high it’ll force CO2 past the closed valve, so I turned it down, but then it’s too low and (with the valve box open) I can see effluent flowing through the CO2 line toward the regulator…it seems like it’s impossible to get the CO2 to perfect equilibrium so that it’s high enough to counter the effluent pressure, but low enough to not force through the pinch valve. While trying to get this working today (twice) the reactor ended up blasting the tank with that 1.5” of effluent too, which shot the dKh up.
And worse I removed my feed line check valve temporarily to see if that helped, walked away for 30 min, and in that timeframe I also got a dreaded back feed…even though the tank return pump feeding it never was off. Possible the CO2 pressure forced a backfeed?
Any suggestions?
Extremely helpful, thank you DennisSorry you are having so much trouble with the controller, but frankly I am not surprised. Everything you have experienced, I have experienced when I was using the factory controller. The factory controller is terrible and is a ticking time bomb in my opinion.
Here is the background on the cause of the gas buildup. When you start your ACR up the CO2 pocket needs to get established and balanced. If you are not running a check valve on the feed line, effluent will be pushed out the feed line as it is displaced by the CO2 being added to the gas pocket. An equilibrium will be established between the pressure of the CO2 gas bubble and the head pressure of the feed pump. This can be observed in the rapid cycling of the solenoid with longer pauses as the CO2 bubble and feed pressure equalize.
Now, if you have added a check valve on the feed line, the CO2 pocket cannot push effluent back towards the tank and the CO2 pocket will form at the pressure your regulator is set to. As the pinch valve is opened and effluent is released, the CO2 pocket will drop in pressure towards the head pressure of the feed pump, but will expand in volume while doing this. Dropping the water level in the reactor, past the float valve. You will start to see the water level falling below the top rim of the reactor and eventually falling low enough to cause the Sicce pump to suck air causing it to stop. If the regulator is set to a pressure not too high above the head pressure of the feed pump, then the difference in pressure translated to gas volume may be small enough to allow the CO2 to be dissolved into the water slowly and the process recovers and reaches equilibrium and the float valve again functions to control the CO2 addition as expected.
Here is how to start up your ACR without the gas bubble expansion issue from occurring. Add a tee into your effluent line with a ball valve on it. Add a line in parallel to your feed check valve with a ball valve on it. Now to start your reactor, with the CO2 off, open the feed check vale bypass valve and open the ball valve on the effluent line draining into a bucket. Now turn on your CO2 (either at the valve on the tank or by plugging in the factory controller). The CO2 solenoid will start cycling off and on. Now close the effluent drain and then after a minute or two, close the feed check valve bypass. The CO2 bubble should now be established close enough to the feed pressure of the pump and the CO2 expansion issue that you were seeing should not occur. By using the effluent drain, you avoided having high dKH, low pH effluent from being pushed back through the feed line into your tank.
Anyone running an ACR should have a check vale on the feed line. If you don't, and your feed pump stops, the expansion back to atmospheric pressure of the CO2 will push effluent back into your tank, spiking the dKH and dropping the pH. As mentioned, you will need a bypass valve in place, and don't forget to close the bypass to allow the check valve to protect from back feeding when the feed pump stops.
While I was still running the factory controller, I also experienced effluent getting push past the pinch valve that you mentioned. It was that experience that convinced me to remove the factory controller. I placed a Masterflex pump on the effluent line instead of running it to the pinch valve, and that eliminated so many of the issues. I have since replaced the CO2 solenoid valve functionality with a Clippard valve and discarded the factory controller entirely.
In case you did not see the condition of the first solenoid in my factory controller, here is what I found when I opened the valve box.
My advice to every ACR owner, is to not use the factory controller. Use a peristaltic pump instead and add a quality CO2 solenoid valve. I suggest the Clippard valve I used as it is inexpensive and of industrial automation quality.
The need for a check valve (and bypass valve) on the feed line can be avoided if you install your peristaltic pump on the feed line and leave the effluent line open. Then the CO2 pocket will be established at atmospheric instead of at the head pressure of the feed pump. Your effulent dKH of the will go down as a result, but a lot of the complications of using the feed pump that was needed when using the factory controller, but is not needed once you stop using the factory controller, goes away. You will still need an effluent drain for startup to avoid effuelent from being pushed out by the CO2 pocket being established though.
I still have my Masterflex on the effluent line, but moving it to the feed line would be a better solution and removes the remaining complications from the legacy factory setup.
I am more than happy to answer questions on replacing the factory controller.
Dennis