Question about sprinkler valves in boats

I went to home depot today looking for these valves to set up my SAN with instead of the cable actuated valves I have now. I did find the 57100 orbit valve but was curious as to if they work ok. Meaning they are made to work on 24V AC and not 12V DC. If they do work, is there enough current to hold it open or is it really weak? This is a general question because all the sprinkler valves are the same 24V ac setup that I saw.

If anybody has any feedback, I am really interested. I would like my setup to be all pushbutton and no cable turning when I am done. I am keeping the aerators and no ballast puppies, so that is not an option at this time.

That's the same valve alot of Supra and Moomba owners are using to replace the factory Orbit valves. Shouldn't be a problem. Should go online and get the Irritrol 700 3/4" valve...it flows alot more water due to the straight through flow design and not "up and over" design like the Orbit.

Check this link and there is another link inside it.

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=777471

If you do go the sprinkler valve route you'll definitely want to go with the Irritrol valve, otherwise you're going to reduce the flow through your system by close to 50%.

Personally I would ditch the valves all together and go with a passive system that doesn't require anything to prevent the flow of water into or out of the bags. It will be a little more work, but is well worth it IMHO.

I know about the irritrol valves and I plan on seeing if I can find them locally. It was a general question looking to see if I can actually use these valves on 12Vdc when they are rated for 24Vac and be reliable to use every day. Not so much needing info on valves, but confirmation that they will work even though it isnt rated for what they are being used for a power source.

Jason, I dont understand what you mean by a passive system. I want to be able to lock out water for skiing, so I need the valves for aerator pumps, and I dont want the expence of ballast puppies as of yet. I am not aware of any other way out there. I am definately up for some enlightenment though, if you will please explain what you mean.

Check out PlanetNautique.com. A few guys have done this conversion on there and they were very happy with it. I dont think the 24V will be a issue, but i'm not educated on how that works. Reduced flow was the only complaint I have heard of.

I see that thread and the first thing I say is there needs to be a strainer there, why cut off the strainer part, but then I realize that if I put a mushroom there, they dont have a strainer on the end of those, do they? Other than that it seems like a great way to do it.

In speaking with others about this situation, is there any reason why a person cant just put a one way check valve from the pump to the bag instead of a anti siphon valve loop like others have said? It would be a lot cheaper and would keep the water from getting siphoned out, am I right? If the main inlet pump is lower than the discharge pump (which in my case it would be) and a vented host to the bag, it should not be powerful enough to pull water past the fill pump when draining I wouldnt think. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Bump for hope of an answer

I'm pretty sure the vented loop is more for auto fill while the boat is in motion. I think even with a mushroom intake you
will still get a little presure trying to fill the bags. For a cheap loop you can always just go to lowes and make you own
out of some PVC pipe.

How does one go about making one of those. Where do you get the valve for the top of the loop?

Well, before wakemakers started sell their vented loop people just took some flexable tubing and looped it higher than their sac's, then ran the tube back down to fill the sac. I would get two sections of 1" pvc pipe about a foot long and mount them mabe 8" apart high in your boat (mabe in front of your engine behind your back seat, thats where I mount my valves in my old super sport I made a panel to fit) . Next use the grey barbed fittings to attach a flexable piece of 1" tubing to the top of you two pieces of pvc pipe. Now you will have your own loop to attach your fill lines to. I think the valve at the top of wakemakers loop is more of a air perge valve not a check valve. But you could try this for a like ten dollars worth of stuff and if it dosen't work then buy wakemakers loop.

so is there anything wrong with a check valve mounted higher than the sack? I have all the parts to make this happen right now. I was just looking for confirmation if I can or cannot run it successfully this way.

If you put a check valve higher than the sac it will keep it from running out of the sac but it won't keep it from auto filling. If it was me just install your line as high as you can with out the check valve and you should be good to go. You can always go back and cut your line and put in a check valve later if you really need it.

That sounds good. I will be cutting off the scooper part of my intake under the boat. I think that will be doing me about as much good as doing a mushroom through hull. It should cut down on pressurized filling.

Well, I just got that done. Kept it on the boat and did it with a metal cutting dremel. Now just have to sand it down to perfectly flat more for asthetics than anything. It was easier than I thought it would be and I didnt even nick the gelcoat.

Nice

TRDon, you'll need the check valves. I tried to get away with it, but the water would always want to siphon back. You'll also need to vent the bag on top. And, you don't really need a "loop". You just have to have some point or length in the fill line that is above the bag.

I can get you the Fly High check valves for $26 each, minus the Don discount, or you can go to the hardware store and get PVC swing or brass swing check valves for around $15 each. Make sure you get the flapper/swing style and not the spring plunger style.

Oh, and don't worry about a strainer on the end of the thru hull. Not needed. I've only had one instance, in thousands of fills, where I got a weed stuck in the inlet and had to swim under the boat to manually unplug it.

I was at menards and they did have rubber flapper valves in a 1 1/4 size that I bought (smallest they had). I bought adapters to size them down to the 1" hose. I am debating buying the atwood 800s just to get some new ones in there and maybe be a little faster than my 7 year old ones. I need to get a little more hose and see where I can go from there, I shouls be ready to get this set up early next week. Expect to be on the water next week Chad I will keep all posted on the progress.