How to setup a Pentair Valve Actuator?

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BillH

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Apr 11, 2012
19
Rocklin, CA
With help from PoolSupplyWorld, I now have a new Pentair VS pump, Easytouch 8 controller with IC60 chlorinator and Clean and Clear Plus filter. Most to the installation went fairly smoothly taking me about two days to complete, from disassembly to starting up the pump.

Now that I have the pump running, I am trying to get the controller set to run a schedule when and how I like automatically. One issue I am having is setting up the Easytouch to control the valve actuators. When I am running the pump in pool cleaning position, I want the valve to be in about a 75 degree position, is this possible or does it have to fully opened or closed? Also how do you set the valve for the various settings. I cannot find out how to program the valves for the various setting, I want one for waterfall, one for cleaner and one for no cleaner.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Bill
 
Ok, this is what I have found out so far...

There is a toggle switch on the bottom of your actuator that will allow you to keep it open at various degrees.

EDIT: (confirmed by Pentair) Yes, there is a cam on the diverter stem that can be adjusted, allowing the valve to be positioned however you like.

I don't believe it is normal to run multiple water features from a single valve actuator. I am pretty sure that normally, you would have a different valve actuator for the different functions...BUT (just to confirm this) I am currently calling (on-hold with) Pentair. I will edit this post if I find out anything new.

EDIT: (advice from Pentair) The best course of action is to add another actuator and plug it into valve A on the back of your circuit board. Then you'll go into the Valve menu on the EasyTouch system and assign valve A to whichever auxiliary you've assigned to the feature you want to operate (i.e., waterfall).
 
Blake,

First, thanks for your help. I have one valve that when fully closed directs water to the pool and when fully opened it directs the water to the waterfall. The second valve is used when the return is directed to the pool and I want to either direct it to the pool return (no pool sweep) or to the pool cleaner (pool sweep). I would like this one to be about in the 75 degree position to control the water flow going to the pool sweep. Let me know if this doesn't make sense.

Thanks again,

Bill
 
BillH said:
Blake,

First, thanks for your help. I have one valve that when fully closed directs water to the pool and when fully opened it directs the water to the waterfall. The second valve is used when the return is directed to the pool and I want to either direct it to the pool return (no pool sweep) or to the pool cleaner (pool sweep). I would like this one to be about in the 75 degree position to control the water flow going to the pool sweep. Let me know if this doesn't make sense.

Thanks again,

Bill
Click to expand...
Yes, that makes sense! There is a cam on the diverter stem (bottom of actuator) that will allow you to adjust how much the valve is open/closed. Let me know if you have any trouble setting it to your preference!
 
Blake, I know where the switch is on the actuator to manually open or close a valve, but I cannot figure out how to program the Easytouch so I can do it with a button. I have read the Easytouch manual and the Control System manuals and cannot figure it out systematically. Can you help with that?

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill, my colleague that knows a LOT about actuators has left for the evening. Tomorrow, I will talk to him, and give you exact steps to set this up (hopefully with pictures). Have a great night!
 
Bill,

One thing to be aware of... though I believe you can set the actuator to open just to a certain position, I don't think this is something that the EasyTouch can adjust. In other words, you can't have one setting on the EasyTouch to make the valve be half open, then another setting that opens it fully... it's simply off or on (though you can define how far you want the valve to open when in the on position).

--Michael
 
Bill,

Under Settings go to Valves. You should see valves A and B. You then assign a circuit to the valve. For example, Valve A = AUX 4. Whenever AUX 4 is on Valve A will operate. The direction of the valve rotation is determined by the three position switch on the valve itself.

Michael is correct. The Easytouch simply opens or closes a valve. It cannot dynamically vary the position of the valve. This means that the Easytouch is not capable of opening the valve to 25% for one condition and 75% for another condition. You can however set the cam stop in the valve itself to an intermediate position. If you set the cam stop to 75%, anytime the valve opens it will open to 75%. You could also set the closed position to 25%. Your valve then would be either at 25% or 75%, but never fully open or closed.

Hope that helps.
 
BillH said:
Blake,

First, thanks for your help. I have one valve that when fully closed directs water to the pool and when fully opened it directs the water to the waterfall. The second valve is used when the return is directed to the pool and I want to either direct it to the pool return (no pool sweep) or to the pool cleaner (pool sweep). I would like this one to be about in the 75 degree position to control the water flow going to the pool sweep. Let me know if this doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
I agree with Michael and luna above. And If I am not mistaken, what you guys are describing is exactly what Bill is trying to accomplish. The first valve is self-explanatory...either open or closed. The second valve (for pool sweep) will be either 75 degrees, or open. In this case, he would set 75 degrees as his 'closed' setting, right?
 

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The actuators for 3-way valves from the various suppliers (Pentair, Jandy, Hayward, Intermatic, ?) are all quite similar in that they use a simple three-wire configuration to operate the valves to open one side or the other. They also have 120 and 90 degree versions, but the 180 versions are probably the most popular. They all simple open one side or the other, though you can adjust the cams inside to control the travel of the valve on one side or the other. Once this "stop" is reached, the valve is open on that side. These are not like servos that can open the valve proportionally unfortunately. I have a pool and attached spa and thus, the return valve on mine will probably be set to stop about 3/4 of the way to the right during pool mode. This is to allow some spa overflow into the pool during normal pool filtering operation. There is a mode called "spillover" where the intake valve is set to pool but the return valve is set to spa to give a similar effect. However, this mode would prevent my return jets from stirring the surface, and would impact skimming accordingly.

You might consider adding some additional plumbing to control the water features/flow as you wish. There are two additional valves that can be added to the EasyTouch 8, though these are usually used for solar and a dedicated cleaner line.
 
Thanks for all the feedback and I now understand that you cannot systematically control the how far the valve opens or closes, but you can with the cams or stops supplies with the valve.

What I don't understand is how to set up the valve. In Luna description above, if I set Aux 4 to Valve A, Valve A will rotate, let's say clockwise due to a switch position on the actuator. How do you now get Valve A to go back to the original position, in this example counterclockwise after I am done? Do I always leave the switch on the actuator in either the clockwise or counterclockwise position? Will it return to the original position after the cycle is complete?

I am using the Pentair (Compool) 3 way valves.

Thanks again for all the feedback.
 
Bill that's correct.

Set Aux 4 to Valve A

When Aux 4 is ON Valve A will rotate to the cam stop in the direction selected by the switch position on the actuator.
When Aux 4 is OFF Valve A will rotate the opposite direction to the other cam stop.
Yes, leave the actuator switch in the same position.

I have one VS pump and a three-way valve. When I want my water feature to run I turn Feature 1 ON. Valve A rotates to the 80-85% position to divert water from the regular returns to the water feature. I also increase the pump speed. When I turn Feature 1 OFF Valve A rotates the opposite direction to return 100% of the water to the regular returns and the pump speed decreases.
 
I found out that if you open the Actuator you can set the stop to where ever you like by loosing up the nut on the lever shaft and rotating the cam back. Since I did not want my actuator to open a 100% when it is in the cleaner mode, I could set it up this way and then when it hits the spot I set it will stop.

Also found that trying to use features/circuits etc only makes it harder than it has to be. I set my pump up with three speeds named Pool, Cleaner and Waterfall, then left Pool to equal Pool, Aux 1 for Cleaner and Aux 2 for Waterfall. I added Aux 3 to control my pool lights using a relay and Aux 4 for my Yard lights using a relay. I use Valve A when I am activating the Waterfall and Valve B when activating the Cleaner.

Wish the manual was clearer on this, but got it working now.
 
Bill:

I'm in the process of setting up a cleaner line on my Easytouch 8 system. I agree that the easiest way to go would be to program one of the Aux1-7 buttons to control the valve actuators, etc. The advantage is that you can directly control the function via a button on the panel. But if I understand correctly, you can also program a Feature Circuit (F.Circuit) to do a similar thing without having to use up a button or relay. So, if you have, or plan to have lots of electrical stuff connected up, it seems to make more sense to program Feature Circuits to handle such things that don't require a relay. For example, to set up a master cleaner that rotates a valve, I guess you would program a circuit to actuate the cleaner valve, assign that circuit to a specific pump speed, and then associate that circuit with a F. Circuit. This could also be scheduled. I have to admit that I'm still getting used to the programming logic for the ET8. It seems very flexible, but this comes at the cost of programming flexibility. It's too bad that Pentair doesn't publish a "Programming Guide" with various examples to accomplish configuration of common setups.
 
Craig;

I got all messed up when I tried programming the ET8 Feature Buttons instead of the Aux buttons. As I read it, that is how you were suppose to do it, but I could never get it to work correctly. Now, I am not feature rich and you don't have to use relay to use an Aux button, so after too many hours of fighting the logic of features and controls, I simplified it and just used the Aux buttons. It made my life easier. I looked high and low for a youtube video of how to program the Easytouch, I think Pentair should make one on the programming of the Easytouch, you agree?
 
Bill:

I totally agree. Pentair really should make a series of How To videos for the Easytouch and perhaps Intellitouch and Suntouch, at least for relatively basic setups. This should detail how to assign functions to Aux buttons vs. Feature Circuits, etc.

BTW, I set up a Low Speed Feature Circuit today to run the pump at low speed. Interestingly, if you go to the menu to activate this, it will turn the pump on and run the pump at the speed set for it in the Settings->Intelliflo->Speeds page. Oddly, if the pool filter is already running, it doesn't seem to do anything to then activate this. This may be because my Intelliflo is by default running at a higher speed and I think I read somewhere that the pump will default to a higher speed. So, I think I am going to program the Pool mode to run the pump at a low speed, and then set higher speeds for CLEANER mode and HI SPEED mode. This will allow me to run the pool for a couple of hours in cleaner mode, and then switch the skimmer back on for a couple more hours of skimming. Then I will schedule it to return to standard pool mode in low speed so that it can continue slow skimming and chlorine generation, heating, etc. I will post a question here on how best to do this.

Craig
 
Craig,

You are correct that Intelliflo will always run the program that is at the highest speed. What I did was to set my filter time, which runs the slowest, for the full time and then overlayed the hours that the pool sweep over the top of those hours. Also I set up my waterfall to run at a higher speed as well and since this is not a timed featured, when I hit the right Aux button, it will run the waterfall. Since the waterfall runs slightly slower than the pool sweep, if I try and run the waterfall when the pool sweep is scheduled it will not run, but I run my pool sweep in the early morning when I rarely am running the waterfall.

I have also found out that the minimum pump speed should be 1750 rpm and could be higher depending on head pressure or the pipe size and distance to/from the pool. This speed is needed to get adequate flow and for the skimmers to work properly. Also the minimum pool speed for the sweep should be 2350.
 
Bill:

I just started a new thread regarding programming/setup of the ET. I think you answered one of my questions (e.g. running the pump at minimum speed over the entire schedule and then overlaying specific functions at higher speeds).

Craig
 
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