True HP Aero For 2011

Mike Young said:

Just wanna say, I love my pressure switch! Don't know why I waited so long to use one. I know it's not really supposed to work this way, but my tank never drops below 95 psi. Even though my cut in is set at 80, the solenoid kick dips the needle enough at around 95 to send the pump pumping. In my case that's about once per day. Very nice. Guess I won't be needing a pressure regulator anytime soon.

Click to expand...

Nice man. The other reason you still want a PS is that the nozzle flowrate and projection goes up at higher pressures, and down at lower. So your misting different amounts of water on the cycles at the different pressures. Harder to keep stuff dialed in. But since your swings arent too much, it might not be such a biggie- I just couldn;t resist interjecting the facts tho lol...

PetFlora said:

More 'cool' news. I checked the pod about an hour after replacing the dark blue Rubbermaid lid withing the corrugated plastic . Pod was/is nice and cool, probably >10* cooler, no longer warm humid air when I open it up. Then it hits me what an idiot I am. Of course the dark blue is going to absorb light, which is going to transfer into the pod. The combination of reflected light due to the white surface area + cooler pod temps is going to pay huge dividends for me.

Click to expand...

Very good man... I am seeing a trend with you and your setup, getting it dialed in better than ever before, and bet your going to really see the results as well.

Looks like almost a month lost to the database backup..could have been worse. On a brighter note, my outdoor chamber is all clean, shiny and ready to go..abeit only for tomato plants We have a hosepipe ban in force already and its not even warm yet.

Im doing my assembly of my mister system saturday, so stoked! Just gotta make sure my brother pics up my pressure regulator and adapter for the accumulator from grainger.

Dont forget the digital tyre pressure guage for setting the tanks air precharge.

Atomizer said:

Dont forget the digital tyre pressure guage for setting the tanks air precharge.

Click to expand...

I got the Xtrol 2 gallon, says its 40 psi precharged, when my 150 psi shurflo cycles shouldnt that get it to where it needs?

like ummm, WHAT DA FUCK!?!?!
We lost a month of collaboration?? i lost all my journal entries as well!...

Sure it could always be worse, they could have sold out to mjseeds.com too, but i left GC for this?.. Get your shit together rollitup!!

BflexNJshore said:

I got the Xtrol 2 gallon, says its 40 psi precharged, when my 150 psi shurflo cycles shouldnt that get it to where it needs?

Click to expand...

You will pop that bladder the first time you try to fill it if you don't put a higher air charge on it. You'll want to set you're air pressure to 2 psi below your pressure switches cut in pressure. You may consider doing a little more reading up on the subject, as not only are you risking trashing your tank, the thing could very well turn into a bomb in the wrong hands. And, don't make the same mistake I did, relying on my compressors air gauge to accurately display the air charge. I was 10psi under when I finally decided to get the digi. Doh!

Damn, that's alot of lost info. Those DEA database purges are a killer, lol.

Atomizer said:

Looks like almost a month lost to the database backup..could have been worse. On a brighter note, my outdoor chamber is all clean, shiny and ready to go..abeit only for tomato plants We have a hosepipe ban in force already and its not even warm yet.

Click to expand...

I have a successful Basil clone. Trying parsley now + thinking to do some tomatoes as well. Did you clone or start from seeds... if seeds, where did you get them... and are they Heirlooms?

BflexNJshore said:

I got the Xtrol 2 gallon, says its 40 psi precharged, when my 150 psi shurflo cycles shouldnt that get it to where it needs?

Click to expand...

If you plan to run the nozzles down to 40psi its ok. Take a 5gal tank running 40-150psi. it will have 3.34 gal of nutes at 150psi. If the pump kicks in at 90psi, the fresh nutes will be mixed with the 1.5 gallons of nutes that are sitting in the accumulator For 90psi cut in point, you`d set the air precharge to 88psi which leaves just 0.06gal sitting in the tank when the pump kicks in.

PetFlora said:

I have a successful Basil clone. Trying parsley now + thinking to do some tomatoes as well. Did you clone or start from seeds... if seeds, where did you get them... and are they Heirlooms?

Click to expand...

I start from seed but i also take cuttings throughout the season to fill in any spaces. I grow cherry toms (bush varieties), they do their own thing and dont need any support. Attached a pic of the chamber so you get an idea of the size.

Atomizer said:

If you plan to run the nozzles down to 40psi its ok. Take a 5gal tank running 40-150psi. it will have 3.34 gal of nutes at 150psi. If the pump kicks in at 90psi, the fresh nutes will be mixed with the 1.5 gallons of nutes that are sitting in the accumulator For 90psi cut in point, you`d set the air precharge to 88psi which leaves just 0.06gal sitting in the tank when the pump kicks in.

Click to expand...

This was (???lol) my game plan (please correct me if where I am wrong):

Shurflo 150 psi (has a selectable cut out range from 140-160 psi) set to cut out at 140 psi and it has an automatic cut in at 115 psi. I would have got a dedicated pressure switch but that was another $250 for one that has all stainless steel components that touch the water (if someone has an alternative to the one made by ashcroft, please share). the xtrol tank has a water capacity of about 0.9 gallon, i wanted to limit the "bomb" size. My $200 all polypropelyne pressure relief valve (Im so proud of my total food grade system) will be set to 145 psi. I have the tefen misters with the spring (cloudtops, and was told they need 100 psi to open by the guy at ecotechnologies) and the pressure regulator set to 105 -110 psi.

I obviously have to do more research regarding how the accumulator functions. So if I understand this correctly, then I need to charge the accumulator tank once to 113 psi to work with my proposed system. I welcome even harsh criticism!

Aye, 113psi precharge, you can keep it at the factory setting if you dont mind having the new nutes mix with older ones.

Atomizer said:

Aye, 113psi precharge, you can keep it at the factory setting if you dont mind having the new nutes mix with older ones.

Click to expand...

So we are on the same page, do the old nutes slowly leave as I mist or do I have to depressurize the system? My misguided thoughs were that the accumulator held 0.9 gallons of nutes (and whatever was in the tubing) under pressure and when the pressure dropped the pump would turn on.

Thats right but if the air precharge is a lot lower than the pump cut-in point the tank wont be empty. If you set the precharge to 2psi below the pumps cut in pressure the tank will be almost empty.
What is the overall capacity of the tank?

Mike Young said:

Damn, that's alot of lost info. Those DEA database purges are a killer, lol.

Click to expand...

hahaha... funny shit... dude you're like the most conflicted poster of photos ive met, lol,.. so also real funny how they deleted them for you like that ...you calling in favors? You got pull man...

Atomizer said:

Thats right but if the air precharge is a lot lower than the pump cut-in point the tank wont be empty. If you set the precharge to 2psi below the pumps cut in pressure the tank will be almost empty.
What is the overall capacity of the tank?

Click to expand...

According to AMTROL: Tank volume= 2.1 gallon Max Recommended accept volume= 0.9 gallon. I did an online calculator (http://www.accumulators.com/) and if i did it right, to discharge 0.9 gallons per day (my target for 4 sites with 2 misters each) it said I need a 5.8 gallon tank or so and If my wacky math is right, then the pump should cycle on maybe 6 times a day.

2.1 gal with 115psi -140psi will give you around 0.34 gal of nutes. Drawdown time will depend on the real world nozzle flowrate and the cycle timing.
Assuming 8x 1gph nozzles with a cycle timing of 1sec/2minutes the pump will run once every 5 hours or so.