Check Valve Assembly

[isoaker]

I know how the ball-bearing-based check valves work, but has anyone opened up the check valves used in the internals of a typical stock water blaster? I'm curious whether there is a small spring in there or whether is just relies on a rubber gasket and proper assembly. If no one has ever cracked one open, I may end up doing so for the articles I'm developing.

[HBWW]

The check valves on my 2100 are really bad, and I have a broken/leaky check valve from an Air Tek 2000 (old air powered Nerf blaster), so I may crack these open to check them out and get some pictures.

The only check valve I'm familiar with are the ones in homemades; can't quite get as much hands on with the stock ones. However, having a look would definitely be worth it to figure out how they made them so small, and may give insights about their reliability and/or why they fail. As far as I'm aware, PVC check valves are simply rock solid (and at nearly $7 a piece, they better damn well be!) and should last at least a decade or two since they're used by the plumbing industry, but the same can't quite be said for stock blasters' check valves.

In addition to myself, DX should have a ton of old parts lying around that he may have no use for. Don't want to speak for him, but I think he's likely to offer to open them up and check them out.

Lastly, there's the PRV itself. I can't figure out how these work other than having a spring and rubber seal assembly, with the spring strong/stiff enough to only open at a specific PSI level. I've noticed that the PVC check valves from McMaster Carr (which are very nicely compact) open with somewhat less force than the valves I get from Lowe's. I think they're better valves for homemades in general due to their smaller size, but they do cost a bit more.

[isoaker]

Regarding the pressure relief valve, as far as I know (and based on various patent diagrams I've seen), those have a pressure-calibrated spring and a sealing plug. I've seen some variations on check valves, but am not quite sure how the internal ones work in our typical stock water blasters.

Bigger ones used in plumbing seem to use springs.

[HBWW]

Plumbing uses a wide variety, but the community strictly uses only valves that work at any angle, which, as far as I'm aware, is only spring. Some have experimented with other valves, but they simply don't work very well at all.

Spring valves can be very compact, however , as a picture I'll eventually post will show.

[DX]

I have a few stock valves that I could cut open.

The reason I use the Lowes, American Valve brand check valves is their availability and reliability. They are almost always on the shelf, at any old Lowes, and they just work. It does take a minimum of 2 PSI worth of suction to open the valve, although basically any reasonably made pump will achieve that. The price sucks, but it beats shipping something else. You can of course make your own valves (see WaterWolf's write up), but that's more potential points of failure for only about a $2 savings. Swing check valves should not be used because of both angle requirements and price - they can be double to triple the cost of the spring-loaded valves.

[soakinader]

http://nad3r.minus.com/mJ2zMAEGQZX0Z
The check valve from a Vaporizer. Hope this helps somewhat.

[isoaker]

http://nad3r.minus.com/mJ2zMAEGQZX0Z
The check valve from a Vaporizer. Hope this helps somewhat.

This doesn't seem to load for me.

As for cutting them open, no need. I just did and there be springs inside.

[HBWW]

For something as pricey as a check valve, it's nice to have ones that are threaded or can otherwise be disassembled, should the need come up in the future. Unfortunately, neither my local Lowes' nor Home Depots carry threaded check valves (my nearest Home Depot doesn't even have PVC valves below 1 1/4"; useless for homemades), so I put the extra money on the ones at McMaster Carr for my most recent project. I can easily reconfigure them if I want to change things up to a PPH or CPH later on...

The Vaporizer link loads just fine over here. It reminds me of the PRV's inside PR blasters' pump seals, so in addition to this, I think it's safe to assume that stock blasters' check valves are all spring powered.

[soakinader]

Speaking of local lowes and check valves, there is only one Lowes in my entire province, and I want to make a homemade. If I go there, what should I get?

[isoaker]

Sometimes, a water blaster needs to be sacrificed in the name of research.

The following is a hacked open Water Warriors Colossus valve assembly. (the file name says Python 'cos I mislabeled it. )

Water Warriors Colossus Valve Assembly

waterwarriors_python_valves04_800.jpg (57.46 KiB) Viewed 2316 times

The right side is where the reservoir would be and the white area on the top-left is where the pressure chamber attaches to. I also was reminded that there are actually two check valves and the pressure relief valve in this assembly. I keep forgetting about the 2nd one after the pump (vertical and unhacked on the left-side of this image).

Since I used a coping saw to rip into these valves, I damaged the upper pressure relief valve's plunger. However, now that I've seen the inside of these valves, it makes it a lot easier to try to illustrate them and how they work.

Edit: for those who didn't notice, the spring for the pressure relief valve (top) is much more uniform and offers more resistance than the spring used for the check valve (bottom). For all intents and purposes, a pressure relief valve is just a check valve with a pressure-rated spring.

[HBWW]

@soakinader: That really depends on what you're building. You'll probably have to get check valves from there, as I don't know who else carries smaller PVC check valves other than McMaster Carr. (Which is where you'll have to go if you want them threaded.) Lowe's typically has a great selection of valves and fittings, but Home Depot is typically about as good in that regard too.

For ball valves, I now always get threaded when possible. Unfortunately, both stores aren't as good about carrying PVC pipe nipples, a part I often need, so I usually go to ACE Hardware for that. (ACO may have them too?) I strictly always get PVC or plastic parts for water homemade since they're cheaper and cost less. Metal parts carry a very small risk of cross-threading if you're careless. They're really only ever necessary for WBL's or for water blaster parts that need to be ruggedized. (i.e. Nozzles, which get scraped against the ground now and then depending on the situation.)

@isoaker: I'm a bit surprised that you didn't have any broken blasters to use for this project. The Colossus is pretty good for combat in its class, but at least it wasn't a Gorgon lol.

[isoaker]

@isoaker: I'm a bit surprised that you didn't have any broken blasters to use for this project. The Colossus is pretty good for combat in its class, but at least it wasn't a Gorgon lol.

Admittedly, most of my water blasters work since I don't get to use them as often as you guys do. Beyond having more limited time to use my blasters, having more means each individual one sees less game time.

As for the Colossus sacrificed, well, while it worked, it wasn't in perfect condition, either, thus making it the one I opted to do the operation on; it's a good thing I'm not a surgeon!

[DX]

Speaking of local lowes and check valves, there is only one Lowes in my entire province, and I want to make a homemade. If I go there, what should I get?

Lowe's typically has a great selection of valves and fittings, but Home Depot is typically about as good in that regard too

Lowes is the check valve source. I've actually found both them and Home Depot to have horrible PVC and metal selections. The quality has declined severely. When I first started making homemades, you could buy 2" to 3/4" bushings, 3" to 1" bell reducers, the mythical 3" to 3/4" bushing, and a variety of NSF-PW 2" and 3" fittings like tees, wyes, elbows, couplers, etc there. Now, they've gutted the pressure fittings to the point where only the bushings and sometimes the caps are rated. The larger reducers have all but vanished, so now you're stuck going 3" to 2" for reducers or 2" to 1" for bushings. They also don't have plug cap assemblies (used for onboard reservoir caps) and sometimes stock a box full of threaded fittings without offering their slip counterparts (like having only threaded 3/4" elbows). The ONLY improvement they've made imo is now offering pre-cut, shorter sections of pipe so you don't have to buy a full 10 foot pipe every time.

Be warned that Lowes and Home Depot mark up PVC and metal significantly. Always try a local hardware store first. The selection may be larger and the prices much cheaper. Home Hardware in NJ was the BEST because it had cheap PVC and stocked cheap schrader valves. Back when I lived in NJ, I was able to get all the components for an APH there minus the check valves. Stepney Hardware here has an amazing selection of PVC and steel at ridiculously low prices. I saved receipts and took down sticker prices from Stepney vs Home Depot for a future article. The price difference is stupid. You're getting robbed at the big box stores.