my upgrade journal/journey

[UncommonSense]

well, nothing blew out and its still doing its toilet flushing sound

Alright, so this is likely something jammed against that white plumbing reducer… I was afraid that this day would come eventually!

It’s going to need to be unclogged by flowing water through it in reverse… this means removing the primary drain pipe (the one with the gate valve you just opened all the way), and blasting it out with a garden hose or similar!

This can probably be done tomorrow at this hour… and we can go through ways to get rid of that reducing fitting so this doesn’t happen again later!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

well we did the flushing another time and still nothing came out. but the problem stopped. so i guess we'll roll with it and see what happens.
on another note ever see a rock flower trying to eat a plate?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok is there a risk to letting this thing do its ''flushing'' when it feels lead? its hit and miss. just wondering if im risking finding water all over the floor if i dont do anything. i REALLY dont want to tear into plumbing but will if i have to

 

[UncommonSense]

ok is there a risk to letting this thing do its ''flushing'' when it feels lead? its hit and miss. just wondering if im risking finding water all over the floor if i dont do anything. i REALLY dont want to tear into plumbing but will if i have to

The flushing you’re hearing is your secondary (or possibly emergency drain doing its job, pulling a full siphon until it sucks air… then trickling until a siphon restarts… rinse and repeat…

It isn’t going to lead to water on your floor, assuming it doesn’t also get clogged by a critter, and isn’t actually the emergency drain!

(If you’re running on the emergency currently with primary AND secondary clogged, you’re out of redundancies against failure, and it should really be addressed!)

— Can you check inside your sump and see if it’s the secondary drain, or the emergency drain dumping out bubbles?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

nothing is dumping bubbles

 

[smitten with ocean life]

oh you mean when it ''flushes''?

 

[UncommonSense]

nothing is dumping bubbles

No bubbles at all coming from the drains, and a flushing sound? Odd…

oh you mean when it ''flushes''?

yup! It should be discharging bubbles into the sump when it’s making that gurgling noise, that’s whichever drain is working sucking in air!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

yes! the bubbles whoosh out the pipe that you have me turn the knob on. sorry! not sure if youre calling that the emergency drain

 

[UncommonSense]

yes! the bubbles whoosh out the pipe that you have me turn the knob on. sorry! not sure if youre calling that the emergency drain

Ah, bingo!

So, this is your primary drain, it sounds like you didn’t re-tune the gate valve on it once you reinstalled the plumbing yesterday!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

i never took anything apart. i just opened and shut that valve a few times. sorry, i know im really dense!

 

[UncommonSense]

Okay, great!

Assuming the gate valve I circled in blue is on the primary drain (aka siphon channel, has shortest standpipe), here’s what to do:

— With the full tank/sump circulation system operating, start by opening the red gate valve all the way until it stops by rotating counter-clockwise… this will make the system very noisy as air is sucked down the drain and into the sump with the water…

— Start by closing the gate valve a quarter turn clockwise at a time, waiting at least 30 seconds between turns… you will likely go several full turns before it restricts the drain enough to start actually tuning it in…

— you’ll go by sight, sound, and touch here; seeing bubbles discharging in the sump, hearing bubbling/gurgling, and feeling the valve you’re turning vibrate as air bubbles pass through it…

— continue closing the gate valve 1/4 turn at a time, once the bubbles discharging/water gurgling/vibration through the valve start to reduce, or become intermittent; you know you’re getting close… now it’s time for “fine tuning” smaller increment adjustments, and waiting 2-3mins between adjustments!

— once tuned, the primary drain plumbing will stop discharging bubbles, the vibration through the valve will be gone, and the tank will run silent!

— you know you’ve closed the primary drain too far if the secondary drain (aka open channel) starts draining more than a trickle, or discharges bubbles/gurgles!

— remember, wait a few mins between any valve adjustments during fine tuning; this gives any air still trapped in the plumbing/standpipe time to escape!

The idea here is to restrict the primary drain just enough that it can’t suck any air in with the water, creating a full siphon, and silent operation! — if operation is silent followed by intermittent moments of gurgling; the siphon is starting and stopping! (Fine tune valve again in this scenario)

Here’s a refresher on gate valve tuning from way back on page 21!

Ah! Well, you may have already cleared out the clog, or all this could have been from the return pump flow reducing, in hindsight!

I suppose next time the best bet would be asking which pipe is burping out bubbles into the sump first!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok!!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

cant catch a break! i think i got it all dialed in like you said and now this! leaking a steady stream of water from that valve it didnt help to tighten the screw on the front

 

[smitten with ocean life]

 

[UncommonSense]

Welp, that sucks!!

This is NOT a Spears brand gate valve, so I’m unfamiliar with the internal anatomy…

However, here’s a diagram for you to reference of how a Spears gate valve looks internally:

https://www.spearsmfg.com/super_sou...nical Information Catalog/032 Gate Valves.pdf
Simply put, the rubber seal(s) within the gate valve are old and dry/cracking, thus the gate valve will need to be rebuilt or replaced!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

thats what i was afraid of. oh. no.

 

[UncommonSense]

So, for now:

Do you have any solo cups, or thin plastic Tupperware containers you’re willing to cut up to make a ramp for water to trickle back into the sump for tonight? — that will be best-bet for containing all the water in the system until you can rebuild tomorrow after a hardware store run!

To rebuild, you’ll need at least one O-ring, possibly several… there are potentially plastic wear rings in there too, but these aren’t as important…

— you’ll need to pull the associated primary drain pipe to safely unscrew the top of the gate valve, and carefully remove the top “hat” from the stem… the part which failed is the stem o-ring, though you should also replace the larger “hat” o-ring… these can be brought to your local ace hardware or similar to size replacements!

(Long term, best-bet here is swapping to a proper Spears brand gate valve, subsequently getting rid of that plumbing reducer in the process!)

 

[smitten with ocean life]

trying to figure out who sells these and if ill be able to get it apart to replace that stuff

So, for now:

Do you have any solo cups, or thin plastic Tupperware containers you’re willing to cut up to make a ramp for water to trickle back into the sump for tonight? — that will be best-bet for containing all the water in the system until you can rebuild tomorrow after a hardware store run!

To rebuild, you’ll need at least one O-ring, possibly several… there are potentially plastic wear rings in there too, but these aren’t as important…

— you’ll need to pull the associated primary drain pipe to safely unscrew the top of the gate valve, and carefully remove the top “hat” from the stem… the part which failed is the stem o-ring, though you should also replace the larger “hat” o-ring… these can be brought to your local ace hardware or similar to size replacements!

(Long term, best-bet here is swapping to a proper Spears brand gate valve, subsequently getting rid of that plumbing reducer in the process!)

 

[smitten with ocean life]

otherwise ill be cutting out plumbing

 

[UncommonSense]

trying to figure out who sells these and if ill be able to get it apart to replace that stuff

This is a NDS brand valve, there doesn’t seem to be much info online about rebuild kits… thankfully, you should only need off-the-shelf 50 cent o-rings!

otherwise ill be cutting out plumbing

This would be the proper long-term fix… getting rid of that tiny drain plumbing post-valve and redoing it all the same diameter!