Solenoid valve, where to get?

[Stigma]

Hey all,

I need some advice on where I may find a solenoid valve that would be suitable for use with the kind of tubing diameters used by us computer cooling enthusiasts. I also want to avoid having to pay hundreds of dollars for industry-grade equipment or something like that.

I'd prefer a finished solution, but if need be I am willing to mod something to work if anyone has any ideas.

The biggest problem for me is finding any place (outside of industry developers) who sell these kinds of things.

I hope someone can help?

-Stigma

[dexaroni]

I would check in a paintball gun, or a hot water heater.... I know those are some odd, not so easy to find parts, but you may be able to find something there.

The issue is, for a solenoid valve the size you would need in order to not entirely kill flow, you would have to find something that has reasonably large size... And at that point my brain goes dead.

[Stigma]

Thanks for the tip, but would it help if I said that you can totally disregard flow issues?

This will be hooked up to a regular household watertap, so I have way more pressure than I need to play around with anyway. if I lose even as much as 80% in this valve, I would still have more than enough :)
I hope that opens up some other possebilities you can tell me about :)

EDIT: When I check ebay I find stuff like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ASCO-Red-Hat-8210G73-Solenoid-Valve-2-Way-3-8-NEW_W0QQitemZ360062879706QQihZ023QQcategoryZ53303Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
its a jungle out there though, and since I have never used a solenoid valve before in my life, I just don't know if this is what I need.
The best fit would be a simple barb-to-barb kinda thing, or quick connects (like this one seems to have).
Wanna give me some reassurance? ;)

-Stigma

[dexaroni]

Haha, that makes things a lot easier.

Make your own!

Get a hose that has a manual valve, that you turn the arm to shut. Atatch a servo to the arm. Connect the servo to the 5V line on your PSU. Splice in a switch, TADA, homemade Solenoid Valve.

I'll admit, I don't know much and I may be overcomplicating things, but the solenoid valve in a paintball gun would work good... see if you can find an old busted one.

[gxavier]

I think you'll still have to pay in the 50-100 usd range for a solenoid valve. Solenoids aren't cheap to begin with.

http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=SV3300&Nav=grej05

Slap some barbs on there and you're good to go. Biggest that one comes in is 1/4", but you don't care about flow, so its all good :P

[Stigma]

If your serious about the making your own solution then.... well... I have allready installed a manual valve on the line. When at 12-o-clock its open. at 3-o-clock its closed. Its reasonably easy to open (with pure fingerstrenght). There is a scew in the center that I would use to fasten some kind of servo to it without too much trouble I suppose.

The only problem is that I know just as little about servos as I know about solenoid valves ;)
Apart from the fastenng of it (which I am sure I can allways figure out myself), the only issues would be:
- to get one that is strong enough, and dosn't burn out or something by trying to push it beyond 100% open.
- to get one that resets itself back to closed when the power is cut

-Stigma

[Stigma]

Ok, how about this one?
http://cgi.ebay.com/3-8-Electric-Solenoid-Valve-12-Volt-Diesel-Air-B21N_W0QQitemZ300234526836QQihZ020QQcategoryZ87087 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

- The price seems perfectly acceptable
- its normally closed, which is what I need
- The 3/8" NTP is very ideal for my existing tubing
- It runs on 12volts, which is perfect since i can get that from any PSU
- Its rated up to 115 PSI, which is way way more than any household water-main.

From what I can judge, this seems to be the perfect solution... unless there is something I am overlooking? I don't want to trust my own judgement too much since its the first time I've used one of these as I said before :) It would be nice if you could give me your input in this one.

-Stigma

[dexaroni]

For servos, get a servo saver, they cost about 10 bucks, and just attatch that... you can get a decent servo for 40 bucks...

However at that point, you are running the same price as a REAL solenoid valve, and it kinda defeats the purpose.

[Stigma]

Yea, and preferably I would like to have a ready-to-use part. I'm confident at modding stuff, but not so much when trying to mod together that I don't fully understand to begin with.
If the suggestion I posted from ebay dosn't have some kind of hidden fault or problem with it that I fail to see, then I think that would be ideal. I would love to hear your opinion on it just to doublecheck myself.

-Stigma

[gxavier]

I'd be hesitant to buy any servos or solenoids off ebay. Most are built with a limited lifetime anyways before their motors burn out.

[junkun13]

festo?

[KVL]

check out your homedepot garden center

[KVL]

checkout at MCMaster-Carr, search term "solenoid valves" or part number 4903K971. they are not cheap.

[Stigma]

I'd be hesitant to buy any servos or solenoids off ebay. Most are built with a limited lifetime anyways before their motors burn out.

Hmm, well what kinda lifetime are we talking about though? I assume the "motor" has to run on this as long as it stays open, but even though I am not in the know about these devices I find it hard to believe that electromagnet would burn out quickly. (that is what these things use no?). After all, there are no moving parts in the motor itself if its an electro-magnet right?

Besides, as this price I can afford to get a spare or two. Fortunately, for my use, if the valve fails it would not result in any critical system failure, and the system will never run unattended.

That said, if you have any concrete suggestions on known "high quality" alternatives, then I will definately look into those. I can afford to spend a bit on it, as long as its not in the 100$+ kinda range.

-Stigma

[bigslappy]

lawn sprinkler systems have 12 volt on/off valves & then get a adjustable pressure reducer that they use in low pressure drip lines for irrigation all of these are cheap & use 1/2" PCV lines all can had at Home Depot . & i'd put a filter on the begining of the line to keep out particals .. u find that ypu will get a cold water sys from this...
if your on a well then the only cost will be the electric for the well pump & the waste water you can water the tomatoes & pansies with

the only worry would be algae but you can kill that with a UV inline purifier like those used in spa's

[Stigma]

Im not running it directly to cool anything. The "raw water" only runs though the coarse heat-exchanger and my own homemade waterblock that cools the compressor for my phase-cooler. neither of these will be negatively impacted by a little bit of grime or algae since the cooling allready far superceeds what it needs to be at. And, the water here is pretty clean given the cold cilmate, I havent seen any algae yet. Finally I live in pretty muhc the rain capital of the world, so the water is free thankfully ;) (atleast there is SOME upside to it, thank god! ;) ).

Unless someone here can come up with a valid argument or some kind of solid data as to why this particular solenoid from ebay would be a bad idea or poor quality, I think this is what I'm going to go for. Since its realtively cheap though, I'
l be sure to get a spare, just in case it should give up the ghost too soon.

-Stigma

[bigslappy]

that will work but still put a filter before it as that what's make these things fail is corrosion when the seals fail on the plunger shaft &/or particals sticking in the valve body ,the home garden valves are all plastic & that valve is brass at about the same price ,you now just need the transformer & i'd wait till you got it in hand as just about any small charger transformer might work (you might have one at home already ) think cell phone charger type thing

[Stigma]

Since the idea is to make the water run when a certain PC system boots up, I figured Il just run some 12volt straight from the PSU to the solenoid valve. Easy as pie ;)
I also have plenty of compact 220-to-12volt transformers around too if I should need that, so it should be no problem :) I doubt a valve like this draws much juice.

-Stigma

[Stigma]

Just a small update, for anyone else who might read this thread and need the same info as I did:

I got into contact with ehcotech who makes the valves I linked to, and an engineer there was kind enough to answer some of my questions.
He was able to tell me that the life-expectancy of these valves were 100.000 ON/OFF cycles, and that this was pretty normal for these kinds of valves.
I was also informed upon asking that its not the duration of the ON cycle that will kill it, but rather the amount of ON/OFF cycles, ie. the moving parts will be the thing that jams up eventually. Since the "motor" is just some coiled wiring it pretty much can't burn out. It will however get a bit hot when on for extended durations. Not hot enough to actually dammage anything though.

With this I am confident that I have now found what I need. I hope this thread can be of use to someone else as well :)
The ebay link will eventually be rendered non-valid, so instead you can try to find the seller "valves4projects", which is actually directly affiliated with ehcotech.

-Stigma