I laugh and think - Solenoid Valves

Hi all,

Well, thought I'd get into a bit of water conservation, and as I have quite a few micros around, my thoughts turned to turning water on and off.

As a lot of power supplies are 12v DC I initially thought that there were heaps of cheap solenoids out there ready to buy. Unfortunately I must have been somewhat deluded as there are not many 12v DC solenoids in existence - maybe more 24v AC.

Checking on Ebay showed some in the USA at about (from memory) $AU10, but being the ever great Australian product consumer, thought I'd find the same here.

Well, as it turns out, after submitting a request to (apparently) the largest supplier of solenoids in Oz that the equivalent cheap plastic solenoid here is around $AU75.00 FMD! What justifies this great markup?

Reply to
philbx1
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snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:a9605e2f-eade-474f-8895- snipped-for-privacy@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

Peter Costello.

GB

--
 "Most police misconduct occurs when citizens challenge an individual
  officer's authority" (Reiss, 1971 c.in Jermier & Berkes 1979)
Reply to
GB

A 1" Richdel/Irritrol solenoid with an AC coil should cost about $20-$25. The 12v DC coils for these are usually the latching type - a pulse with one polarity opens the valve, a pulse with the reverse polarity closes the valve, requiring an H- bridge or dual-pole relays to control each valve. The catch, as you've found is that the DC latching coil costs $30-$40, which is bloody expensive compared to a 1" valve, however the same coil is used on much more expensive valves, such as 2" units.

If you are not running high flow rates, why not hack one of the previously-mentioned Holman tap-timers - they sell a $20 2-knob version which has a neato motorised ball valve. The catch is the fluid path, while straight, is only about 8mm diameter - fine for drip irrigation but probably not for sprinklers or pop-ups.

Reply to
Poxy

What do 1/2" garden retic solenoids cost? They are AC - perhaps drop the voltage down & run off DC??

Reply to
Robbo

Hmm, Peter Costello.. known associates. Now what was I going to do this Saturday?...

Reply to
philbx1

Hi Poxy, and thanks,

I would hack a tap-timer, but common sense suggests that a 12vDC solenoid should be available, but not at $AU75.00 (unless you wish to rip-of people)...

Thanks again Poxy for the great ideas though.

Reply to
philbx1

BTW, Please excuse the rather strange topic. I was thinking of the lyrics of a long-gone Australian group - Anyone know what the song/ group is?

Reply to
philbx1

Could be economies of scale.

At one stage, Twainese bicyles were shipped to USA, then reshipped to Australia,

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Reply to
Terryc

No cigar sorry Rodney. Maybe more like this...

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Reply to
philbx1

any good ?

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Reply to
rodney

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Rats, I could have handled a nice Cuban. know the song, the lyrics bring back memories of middle Australia, well penned, but the topic not particularly palatable for those who started in brick veneer suburbia.

Reply to
rodney

I have had many years life with these 24v ac solenoids (daily watering). I deliberately ran one off a 12vdc solar irrigation project knowing that eventually the core would polarise and solenoid wont pull in properly. Those $18 24 ac solenoids lasted 2 years before failing on DC. I replaced the solenoid with another but this time I reverse the leads every couple of months or so. Been about two years on DC no failure yet. I did plan to buy a cheap mini car inverter and run a 240/24v xformer to feed solenoids AC in future anyway.

Reply to
tuppy

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