Auto-fill for Liquidator?

chrisexv6 · May 31, 2009

I was wondering if this might work:

Seeing as how the 5 gallon carboys are a pain to lift and pour nicely, I was wondering if you could plumb something inline with the pressure feed to the Liqiudator, so that it "pulls" the liquid chlorine out of the carboy and brings it into the Liquidator.

Just an idea, not even sure if there is enough suction (or even how much suction would be necessary). Also dont know if having the chlorine come straight into it is a problem or not (white-stuff).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

-Chris

duraleigh · May 31, 2009

Similar to your idea, I built a platform for the carboy just above the water level for the LQ. I then sat the carboy on the platform and siphoned the chlorine into the LQ.....worked well.

chrisexv6 · May 31, 2009

duraleigh said:
Similar to your idea, I built a platform for the carboy just above the water level for the LQ. I then sat the carboy on the platform and siphoned the chlorine into the LQ.....worked well.

Yep, thats my backup plan

As much as I like using the 5 gallons, its such a pain to try to get them to pour slowly. And once they do pour slowly, you really need them to POUR SLOWLY. Takes too long!

Thinking of another idea, Im wondering if all you need is a cap from a carboy with 2 hoses in it.........put the Carboy inline with the pressure feed from the LQ, fire up the filter and let the pressure *push* the chlorine into the LQ. The only question left is what happens when the chlorine is injected directly into the water, instead of thru the funnel in the corner of the LQ.

JasonLion · May 31, 2009

No, you don't want to do that. If a full strength tank is in-line with the Liquidator it will defeat the system completely. The division between the two layers needs to be maintained. Mixing full strength bleach with the incoming water supply destroys the separation between the layers.

What you want is some kind of filling hose that attaches to the full carboy while it is upright, and then runs full strength chlorine into the funnel in a controlled slow way. dualeigh's syphon approach is one way to do that. There are no doubt others.

chrisexv6 · Jun 1, 2009

Easy (and fairly cheap) fix: electric fuel pump for a gas powered RC vehicle.

It runs on 12V thats the only drawback (I suppose you could hack in a round AC jack, then get a wallwart to go from 120V to 12V and plug into the pump). If you didnt want to hack in a new jack, you could always use a 12V dry cell battery.

Pumps at about 33 oz/minute, so its pretty slow (5 gallon carboy would take 20 minutes of pumping), but thats essentially what we want anyway.

Aquaman95 · Jun 1, 2009

chrisexv6 said:
Easy (and fairly cheap) fix: electric fuel pump for a gas powered RC vehicle.

It runs on 12V thats the only drawback (I suppose you could hack in a round AC jack, then get a wallwart to go from 120V to 12V and plug into the pump). If you didnt want to hack in a new jack, you could always use a 12V dry cell battery.

Pumps at about 33 oz/minute, so its pretty slow (5 gallon carboy would take 20 minutes of pumping), but thats essentially what we want anyway.

Bleach will eat a fuel pump very quickly.

chrisexv6 · Jun 1, 2009

Hmm, figured it couldnt be any worse than glow fuel ? There is also a straight gas version, would bleach eat that too?

Looks like Im just gonna have to suck it up and pour

Ill put a little shelf over the LQ or something to rest the jug on, at least it will help a little.

Aquaman95 · Jun 1, 2009

chrisexv6 said:
Hmm, figured it couldnt be any worse than glow fuel ? There is also a straight gas version, would bleach eat that too?

Looks like Im just gonna have to suck it up and pour Ill put a little shelf over the LQ or something to rest the jug on, at least it will help a little.

Oh, it's way worse. It will eat all metals quickly and some plastics slowly.

I think Dura's idea of the shelf/siphon is the best.